An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of a decadence.

Poetry doesn't belong to those who write it, but to those who need it.

Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.

A poem records emotions and moods that lie beyond normal language, that can only be patched together and hinted at metaphorically.

Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.

A good poet's made as well as born.

I cannot accept the doctrine that in poetry there is a ''suspension of belief.'' A poet must never make a statement simply because it is sounds poetically exciting; he must also believe it to be true.

All one's inventions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry.

I by no means rank poetry high in the scale of intelligence --this may look like affectation but it is my real opinion. It is the lava of the imagination whose eruption prevents an earthquake.

Who among us has not, in moments of ambition, dreamt of the miracle of a form of poetic prose, musical but without rhythm and rhyme, both supple and staccato enough to adapt itself to the lyrical movements of our souls, the undulating movements of our reveries, and the convulsive movements of our consciences? This obsessive ideal springs above all from frequent contact with enormous cities, from the junction of their innumerable connections.