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"I have had much to learn from Sweden's poetry and, more especially, from her lyrics of the last generation."

Knut Hamsun, Norwegian Author

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"I have had much to learn from Sweden's poetry and, more especially, from her lyrics of the last generation."

Exlpore more Poetry quotes

"Poetry is as precise a thing as geometry."

Gustave Flaubert, French Novelist

Poetry, Geometry

"For awhile after you quit Keats all other poetry seems to be only whistling or humming."

F. Scott Fitzgerald, American Author

"It is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem,-a thought so passionate and alive that like the spirit of a plant or an animal it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature with a new thing. The thought and the form are equal in the order of time, but in the order of genesis the thought is prior to the form."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Poet

Poetry, Thought, Nature, Creation

"I once began to ask around what constitutes a good poem. It felt petty, in a sense. A boy would need no help in deciding which girls he thinks are pretty."

Criss Jami, American Philosopher

Poetry, Wisdom, Truth, Inspirational, Today

"People wish to be poets more than they wish to write poetry, and that's a mistake. One should wish to celebrate more than one wishes to be celebrated."

Lucille Clifton, American Poet

Poetry, Mistake, People, Poets

"When one verse in life ends in ignominy, we can use the glimmering marvel of nature's splendor and frayed edges culled from the black linen of past failures to write uncanny poems that give voice to the fissures in our hollow, reflective poetry that echoes our supple inner world of cherished dreams colliding with the serrated edges of savage realism."

Kilroy J. Oldster, American Author

Poetry, Nature, Failure, Dream

"Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea."

John Updike, American Novelist

Poetry, Criticism, Fiction, Open

"I don't think Auden liked my poetry very much, he's very Anglican."

Stevie Smith, British Poet

"How these words, wait to diein the arms of all the poetry..yet to be written."

Sanober Khan, Indian Businessman

Poetry, Word, Art, Creation

"When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses."

John F. Kennedy, American President

Poetry, Power, Arrogance, Concern

Explore more quotes by Knut Hamsun

"No, what I should really like to do right now, in the full blaze of lights, before this illustrious assembly, is to shower every one of you with gifts, with flowers, with offerings of poetry - to be young once more, to ride on the crest of the wave."

"In old age we are like a batch of letters that someone has sent. We are no longer in the past, we have arrived."

"When good befalls a man he calls it Providence, when evil fate."

"No worse fate can befall a young man or woman than becoming prematurely entrenched in prudence and negation."

"Today riches and honours have been lavished on me, but one gift has been lacking, the most important one of all, the only one that matters, the gift of youth."

"However, I must not indulge in homespun wisdom here before so distinguished an assembly, especially as I am to be followed by a representative of science."

"Heaven knows that there are plenty of opportunities in later life, too, for being carried away. What of it? We remain what we are and, no doubt, it is all very good for us!"

"Were I more conversant with literature and its great names, I could go on quoting them ad infinitum and acknowledge my debt for the merit you have been generous enough to find in my work."

"There is nothing like being left alone again, to walk peacefully with oneself in the woods. To boil one's coffee and fill one's pipe, and to think idly and slowly as one does it."

"It is as well perhaps that this is not the first time I have been swept off my feet. In the days of my blessed youth there were such occasions; in what young person's life do they not occur?"

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