Herbert Read - Poetry Quotes

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English Poetry has come full circle from the widest public appeal, the communal poetry of ballads to the narrowest possible, in the present day as the poet addresses himself.

Herbert Read

Poetry, we might say, is concerned with the truth of what is, not with what is truth.

Herbert Read

Poetry is creative expression; Prose is constructive expression. … by creative I mean original. In Poetry the words are born or reborn in the act of thinking. … There is no time interval between the words and the thought when a real poet writes, both of them happen together, and both the thought and the word are Poetry.

Herbert Read

The process of poetry consists firstly in maintaining this vision in its integrity and secondly in expressing this vision in words.

Herbert Read

The difference between poetry and prose is not one of surface qualities, or form, or mode of expression, but of essence. The state of mind in which poetry originates must either seek poetic expression or it must not be expressed.

Herbert Read

Poetry is properly speaking a transcendental quality, a sudden transformation in which words assume a particular influence.

Herbert Read