Poet

Explore 1478 quotes by Poets

Tempt not a desp'rate man.

William Shakespeare

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Read Romeo and Juliet at The Folger Shakespeare Library

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Topic

Nothing to lose Desperation

Speaker

Romeo Montague

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 5, sc. 3.

Current Citation

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

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter,
Long ago.

Christina Rossetti

More information about this quote

Topic

Winter Seasons

Author

Christina Rossetti

Source

In the Bleak Mid-Winter

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1875 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Rossetti, Christina. "A Christmas Carol." Scribner's Monthly, 1872, I. 1.

Current Citation

Rossetti, Christina. "A Christmas Carol." The Complete Poems. Penguin Classics, 2001, I. 1.

Died some, pro patria,
Non 'dulce' non 'et decor'…
Walked eye-deep in hell
Believing in old men's lies, then unbelieving
Came home, home to a lie.

Ezra Pound

More information about this quote

Topic

Horrors of war World War I

Author

Ezra Pound

Source

Hugh Selwyn Mauberley

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Pound, Ezra. Hugh Selwyn Mauberley. The Ovid Press, 1920, pt. 1, poem 4.

These be
Three silent things:
The falling snow... The hour
Before the dawn... The mouth of one
Just dead.

Adelaide Crapsey

More information about this quote

Topic

Silence

Author

Adelaide Crapsey

Source

Triad

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1915 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Crapsey, Adelaide. "Triad." Verse. Manas Press, 1915.

Current Citation

Crapsey, Adelaide. "Triad." Complete Poems and Collected Letters of Adelaide Crapsey, edited by Susan S. Smith. State University of New York Press, 2016.

The road to resolution lies by doubt:
The next way home's the farthest way about.

Francis Quarles

Emblems

More information about this quote

Topic

Doubt and skepticism

Author

Francis Quarles

Source

Emblems

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

1635 1630s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Quarles, Francis. Emblemes, Divine and Moral. London, 1635, bk. 4, emblem 2.

For want of a nail the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost.

George Herbert

Outlandish Proverbs

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Topic

Little things make a big difference

Author

George Herbert

Source

Outlandish Proverbs

Statement Type

Proverbs, aphorisms and adages

Language

English

Time

1633 1630s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Herbert, George. Jacula Prudentum, or, Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. Microform. London: Humphrey Blunden, 1640.

Current Citation

Herbert, George. "Outlandish Proverbs." Herbert: The Complete English Works, edited by Ann Pasternak Slater. Everyman's Library, 1995, no. 495.

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the Ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle.
Why not I with thine?

Percy Bysshe Shelley

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Read Love's Philosophy at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Interconnectedness of all things Connecting with others

Author

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Source

Love's Philosophy

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1819 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "Love's Philosophy." The Indicator. London: J. Appleyard, 22 Dec. 1819, I. 1.

Current Citation

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "Love's Philosophy." Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Major Works, edited by Zachary Leader and Michael O'Neill. Oxford University Press, 2009, I. 1.

We spend our midday sweat, our midnight oil;
We tire the night in thought, the day in toil.

Francis Quarles

More information about this quote

Topic

Work Fatigue

Author

Francis Quarles

Source

Emblems

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1635 1630s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Quarles, Francis. Emblemes, Divine and Moral. London, 1635, bk. 2, emblem 2.

It was at present a place perfectly accordant with man's nature-neither ghastly, hateful, nor ugly; neither commonplace, unmeaning, nor tame; but, like man, slighted and enduring; and withal singularly colossal and mysterious in its swarthy monotony. As with some persons who have long lived apart, solitude seemed to look out of its countenance. It had a lonely face, suggesting tragical possiblities.

Thomas Hardy

The Return of the Native

A description of Egdon Heath, a fictional place in southeast England.

More information about this quote

Topic

Landscape England

Author

Thomas Hardy

Source

The Return of the Native

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1878 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Hardy, Thomas. "The Return of the Native." Belgravia, 9 Jan. 1878 - 19 Dec. 1878.

Current Citation

Hardy, Thomas. The Return of the Native, edited by Simon Gatrell. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

Bertolt Brecht

More information about this quote

Topic

Parliamentary democracy Citizen and state Democracy

Author

Bertolt Brecht

Source

The Solution

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Irony Joke

Language

German

Time

1956 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Brecht, Bertolt. "Die Lösung [The Solution]." Die Welt, 1959.

Absence is to love what wind is to fire;
It extinguishes the small, it kindles the great.

Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of love Love

Author

Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy

Source

Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules: Maximes d'Amour.

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

French

Time

1665 1660s 17th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

De Bussy-Rabutin, Roger. Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules [Love history of the Gauls]. Cork: Editions à la Croix de Malte, 1665.

O Life! how pleasant in thy morning,
Young Fancy's rays the hills adorning!
Cold-pausing Caution's lesson scorning,
We frisk away,
Like school-boys at th' expected warning,
To joy and play.

Robert Burns

More information about this quote

Topic

Youth

Author

Robert Burns

Source

Epistle to James Smith

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1786 1780s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Burns, Robert. "Epistle to James Smith." Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. Kilmarnock: John Wilson, 1786, st. 16.

Current Citation

Burns, Robert. "To James Smith." Robert Burns: Selected Poems, edited Carol Mcguirk. Penguin Classics, 1994, I. 16.

The trouble
with being best man is, you don't get a chance
to prove it.

Les A. Murray

More information about this quote

Topic

Best man Weddings

Author

Les A. Murray

Source

The Boys Who Stole the Funeral

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Murray, Les A. The Boys Who Stole the Funeral: A Novel Sequence. Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1980.

Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Oliver Goldsmith

The Citizen of the World

More information about this quote

Topic

Overcoming adversity Adversity

Author

Oliver Goldsmith

Source

The Citizen of the World

Medium

Novel

Genre

Satire

Language

English

Time

1761 1760s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Goldsmith, Oliver. "Letter VII." The Citizen of the World; or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher. Dublin: George and Alex. Ewing, 1762. Originally published in The Public Ledger, Jan. 1760 - Aug. 1761.

If thou wilt ease thine heart
Of lover and all its smart
Then sleep, dear, sleep.

Thomas Lovell Beddoes

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Topic

Broken heart Moving forward Sleep as balm Sleep

Author

Thomas Lovell Beddoes

Source

Death's Jest Book

Language

English

Time

1850 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Beddoes, Thomas Lovell. Death's Jest-book; Or, The Fool's Tragedy. London: William Pickering, 1850.

Current Citation

Beddoes, Thomas Lovell. Death's Jest Book. Routledge, 2020.

I would be married, but I'de have no Wife,
I would be married to a single Life.

Richard Crashaw

More information about this quote

Topic

Single life Marriage

Author

Richard Crashaw

Source

On Marriage Steps to the Temple

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1646 1640s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Crashaw, Richard. "On Marriage." Steps to the Temple. Humphrey Moseley, 1646, I. 1.

All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated.

John Donne

Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, and severall steps in my Sicknes

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of death Death

Author

John Donne

Source

Meditation XVII Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, and severall steps in my Sicknes

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1624 1620s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Donne, John. "Meditation XVII." Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, and severall steps in my Sicknes. London, 1624.

Current Citation

Donne, John. "Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions." Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Death's Duel. Vintage, 1999, meditation 17.

Nothing begins, and nothing ends,
That is not paid with moan;
For we are born in other's pain,
And perish in our own.

Francis Thompson

More information about this quote

Topic

Life and death The human condition

Author

Francis Thompson

Source

Daisy

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1893 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Thompson, Francis. "Daisy." Poems. London: Elkin Mathews and John Lane, 1893, st. 15.

The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year,
Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere.

William Cullen Bryant

The Death of the Flowers

More information about this quote

Topic

Autumn

Author

William Cullen Bryant

Source

The Death of the Flowers

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1832 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bryant, William Cullen. "The Death of the Flowers." Poems. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1839, st. 1.

Thou art my way; I wander, if thou fly;
Thou art my light; if hid, how blind am I!
Thou art my life; if thou withdraw, I die.

Francis Quarles

More information about this quote

Topic

Needing another person Being in love

Author

Francis Quarles

Source

Emblems

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1643 1640s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Quarles, Francis. Emblemes, Divine and Moral. London, 1635, bk. 3, emblem 7.