Poet

Explore 1478 quotes by Poets

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.

Alexander Pope

An Essay on Criticism

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Topic

Downsides of education Education Ignorance

Author

Alexander Pope

Source

An Essay on Criticism

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1711 1710s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Pope, Alexander, [published anonymously]. "An Essay on Criticism." London: W. Lewis, 1711, pt. 2, l. 215-218.

Current Citation

Pope, Alexander. "An Essay on Criticism." Alexander Pope: The Major Works, edited by Pat Rogers. Oxford University Press, 2009, pt. 2, I. 215-218.

I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Sonnets

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Topic

Wolf in sheep's clothing Looks are deceiving Appearance vs. reality

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

Sonnet 147 Shakespeare's Sonnets

Medium

Sonnet Poem

Language

English

Time

1609 1600s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. Shake-speares Sonnets. London: Thomas Thorpe, 1609, sonnet 147, I. 13.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "The Sonnets." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, sonnet 147.

The way to bliss lies not on beds of down,
And he that had no cross deserves no crown.

Francis Quarles

More information about this quote

Topic

Adversity

Author

Francis Quarles

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1621 1620s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Quarles, Francis. Hadassa; or the History of Queene Ester. London: Richard Moore, 1621, sec. 9, meditation 9.

You and I are past our dancing days.

William Shakespeare

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Topic

Dancing Youth vs. old age Aging

Speaker

Capulet

Author

William Shakespeare

Genre

Tragedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1597 1590s 16th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. London: John Danter, 1597, act 1, sc. 5.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Romeo and Juliet." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 1, sc. 5.

Things said or done long years ago,
Or things I did not do or say
But thought that I might say or do,
Weigh me down, and not a day
But something is recalled,
My conscience or my vanity appalled.

W.B. Yeats

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Topic

Remorse Regrets

Author

W.B. Yeats

Source

Vacillation

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Yeats, William Butler. "Vacillation." The Winding Stair and Other Poems. The Macmillan Company, 1933, pt. 5, st. 2.

Current Citation

Yeats, William Butler. "Vacillation." W. B. Yeats: The Major Works, edited by Edward Larrissy. Oxford University Press, 2008, pt. 5, st. 2.

What is hell?
Hell is oneself,
Hell is alone, the other figures in it
Merely projections. There is nothing to escape from
And nothing to escape to. One is always alone.

T.S. Eliot

More information about this quote

Topic

Hell

Speaker

Edward

Author

T.S. Eliot

Source

The Cocktail Party

Medium

Play

Language

English

Time

1949 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eliot, T. S. The Cocktail Party. 1949, Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland, act 1, sc. 5.

Who order'd, that their longing's fire
Should be, as soon as kindled, cool'd?
Who renders vain their deep desire?
A God, a God their severance rul'd!
And bade betwixt their shores to be
The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea.

Matthew Arnold

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Topic

Lost love

Author

Matthew Arnold

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1852 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Arnold, Matthew, [published as A]. "To Marguerite." Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems. London: B. Fellowes, 1852, st. 4.

I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path, and I will leave a trail.

Muriel Strode

Wind-Wafted Wild Flowers

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Topic

Taking a different path

Author

Muriel Strode

Source

Wind-Wafted Wild Flowers

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Strode, Muriel. "Wind-Wafted Wild Flowers." The Open Court, 1903.

But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed,
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white - then melts for ever.

Robert Burns

Tam o' Shanter

More information about this quote

Topic

Pleasure The ephemeral

Author

Robert Burns

Source

Tam o' Shanter

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1791 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Burns, Robert. "Tam O'Shanter." Edinburgh Herald/Edinburgh Magazine, Mar. 1791.

Current Citation

Burns, Robert. "Tam O'Shanter." Robert Burns: Selected Poems, edited by Carol Mcguirk. Penguin Classics, 1994.

Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.

Mary Oliver

The Uses of Sorrow

More information about this quote

Topic

Adversity Sadness

Author

Mary Oliver

Source

The Uses of Sorrow

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

2006 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Oliver, Mary. “The Uses of Sorrow.” Thirst. Beacon Press, 2006, I. 1.

Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.

Robert Frost

More information about this quote

Topic

Home

Author

Robert Frost

Source

The Death of the Hired Man

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Definition

Language

English

Time

1914 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Frost, Robert. "The Death of the Hired Man." North of Boston. David Nutt, 1914.

Current Citation

Frost, Robert. "The Death of the Hired Man." Robert Frost: Collected Poems, Prose, and Plays, edited by Richard Poirier and Mark Richardson. Library of America, 1995.

The sea of faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd;
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Matthew Arnold

Dover Beach

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Topic

Decline of religion Disenchanted world Modern life

Author

Matthew Arnold

Source

Dover Beach

Language

English

Time

1867 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." New Poems. London: Macmillan and Co., 1867, st. 3, 4.

Current Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." Dover Beach and Other Poems. Dover Publications, 2012, st. 3, 4.

Theory of the true civilization.
It is not to be found in gas or steam or table turning, It consists in the diminution of the traces of original sin.

Charles Baudelaire

More information about this quote

Topic

Civilization

Author

Charles Baudelaire

Language

French

Time

1867 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Baudelaire, Charles. Mon Coeur mis a nu [My Naked Heart]. Paris, 1887, no. 58.

Current Citation

Baudelaire, Charles. "My Heart Laid Bare." Late Fragments: Flares, My Heart Laid Bare, Prose Poems, Belgium Disrobed, translated by Richard Sieburth. Yale University Press, 2022, no. 58.

Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves suck back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean.

Matthew Arnold

Dover Beach

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Topic

The beach Waves Melancholy

Author

Matthew Arnold

Source

Dover Beach

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1867 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." New Poems. London: Macmillan and Co., 1867, I. 9.

Current Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." Dover Beach and Other Poems. Dover Publications, 2012, I. 9.

Love your solitude and bear with sweet-sounding lamentation the suffering it causes you.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Letters to a Young Poet

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Topic

Solitude

Author

Rainer Maria Rilke

Source

Letters to a Young Poet

Medium

Letter

Statement Type

Advice

Language

German

Time

1929 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Rilke, Rainer Maria. Letter to Franz Kappus. 16 July 1903.

Current Citation

Rilke, Rainer Maria. Letters to a Young Poet, translated by Charlie Louth. Penguin Classics, 2014.

If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in Vain.

Emily Dickinson

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Topic

Helping others

Author

Emily Dickinson

Source

If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking Poems

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1886 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Dickinson, Emily. "If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking." Poems by Emily Dickinson. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1890, I. 1.

Current Citation

Dickinson, Emily. "If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking." Emily Dickinson’s Poems: As She Preserved Them, edited by Cristanne Miller. Belknap Press, 2016, I. 1.

I like to find
what's not found
at once, but lies
within something of another nature
in repose, distinct.

Denise Levertov

Pleasures

More information about this quote

Topic

Seeking

Author

Denise Levertov

Source

Pleasures

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1959 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Levertov, Denise. "Pleasures." With Eyes at the Back of Our Heads. New Directions Publishing, 1959, I. 1.

For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: "It might have been!"

John Greenleaf Whittier

Maud Muller

More information about this quote

Topic

The road not taken Regrets

Author

John Greenleaf Whittier

Source

Maud Muller

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1856 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wittier, John Greenleaf. "Maud Muller." The Panorama and Other Poems. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1856, st. 53.

Current Citation

Wittier, John Greenleaf. "Maud Muller." John Greenleaf Whittier: Selected Poems. Library of America, 2004.

The Sultan asked for a Signet motto, that should hold good for Adversity or Prosperity. Solomon gave him, "This also shall pass away."

Edward FitzGerald

More information about this quote

Topic

Equanimity

Author

Edward FitzGerald

Language

English

Time

1852 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fitzgerald, Edward. Polonius: A Collection of Wise Saws and Modern Instances. London: William Pickering, 1852.

There is a silence where hath been no sound,
There is a silence where no sound may be,
In the cold grave-under the deep, deep sea.

Thomas Hood

Silence

More information about this quote

Topic

Silence Death

Author

Thomas Hood

Source

Silence

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1827 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hood, Thomas. "Silence." The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies, Hero and Leander, Lycus the Centaur and Other Poems. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green/Philadelphia: E. Littell, 1827.

Current Citation

Hood, Thomas. "Silence." Selected Poems of Thomas Hood. Harvard University Press, 1970.