Poet

Explore 1478 quotes by Poets

The saying is true: “The empty vessel makes the greatest sound.”

William Shakespeare

Henry V

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Topic

Talking too much

Speaker

Boy

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

Henry V

Medium

Play

Genre

History (play)

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1599 1590s 16th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. Henry V. The Lord Chamberlain's Men, c. 1599, The Curtain, Shoreditch, London, England, UK, act 4, sc. 4.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Henry the Fifth." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 4, sc. 4.

The world's a scene of changes, and to be Constant, in Nature were inconstancy.

Abraham Cowley

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Topic

Nature The world

Author

Abraham Cowley

Source

Inconstancy The Mistress

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1647 1640s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cowley, Abraham. "Inconstancy." The Mistress with Other Select Poems. London: self-published, 1647.

Tyranny is always better organized than freedom.

Charles Peguy

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Topic

Tyranny Threats to freedom

Author

Charles Peguy

Source

Basic Verities

Medium

Epigram

Language

French

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Peguy, Charles. Basic Verities: Prose and Poetry, translated by Ann and Julian Green. Pantheon Books, 1943.

Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.

Fernando Pessoa

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Topic

Literature

Author

Fernando Pessoa

Source

The Book of Disquiet

Language

Portuguese

Time

1935 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Pessoa, Fernando (published as Bernardo Soares). Livro do Desassossego [The Book of Disquiet]. Attica, 1982.

My days have been so wondrous free,
The little birds that fly
With careless ease from tree to tree,
Were but bless'd as I.

Thomas Parnell

My Days Have Been So Wondrous Free

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Topic

Being carefree

Author

Thomas Parnell

Source

My Days Have Been So Wondrous Free

Medium

Song

Language

English

Time

1714 1710s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Parnell, Thomas. "Song." Poetical Miscellanies, Consisting of Original Poems and Translations. London: Jacob Tonson, 1714.

Becoming a father isn't difficult,
But it's very difficult to be a father.

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Topic

Fatherhood Parenting

Author

Wilhelm Busch

Source

Julchen

Medium

Poem

Language

German

Time

1877 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Busch, Wilhelm. Julchen. Munich: Bassermann, 1877.

I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Indeed, unless the billboards fall
I'll never see a tree at all.

Ogden Nash

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Topic

Consumerism Excessive development

Author

Ogden Nash

Source

Song of the Open Road

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1932 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Nash, Ogden. "Song of the Open Road." The New Yorker, 15 Oct. 1932.

Denounce the government and embrace the flag. Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands.

Wendell Berry

More information about this quote

Topic

Dissent Patriotism

Author

Wendell Berry

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Berry, Wendell. "Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front." The Country of Marriage. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973.

We look before and after,
And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

To a Skylark

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Topic

Melancholy Yin and yang

Author

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Source

To a Skylark

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1820 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "To a Skylark." Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama, in Four Acts, With Other Poems. London: Charles and James Ollier, 1820, I. 88.

Current Citation

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "To a Skylark." Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Major Works, edited by Zachary Leader and Michael O'Neill. Oxford University Press, 2009, I. 88.

Oh, love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.

W.B. Yeats

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Topic

Nature of love Love

Author

W.B. Yeats

Source

The Young Man's Song

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1910 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Yeats, William Butler. "Brown Penny." The Green Helmet and Other Poems. The Cuala Press, 1910.

Current Citation

Yeats, William Butler. "Brown Penny." W. B. Yeats: The Major Works, edited by Edward Larrissy. Oxford University Press, 2008.

That girls are raped, that two boys knife a third.
Were axioms to him, who'd never heard
Of any world where promises were kept,
Or one could weep because another wept.

W.H. Auden

The Shield of Achilles

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Topic

Violence Brutality

Author

W.H. Auden

Source

The Shield of Achilles

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1952 19502s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Auden, W. H. "The Shield of Achilles." The Shield of Achilles. Faber and Faber/Random House, 1955. Originally published in Poetry, Oct. 1952.

What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!-and you, Garcia Lorca what were you doing down by the watermelons?

Allen Ginsberg

A Supermarket in California

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Topic

Consumerism American life

Author

Allen Ginsberg

Source

A Supermarket in California

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Irony

Language

English

Time

1956 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ginsberg, Allen. "A Supermarket in California." Howl and Other Poems. City Lights Books, 1956.

Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak.

William Shakespeare

As You Like It

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Topic

Nature of women

Speaker

Rosalind

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

As You Like It

Medium

Play

Genre

Comedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1616 1610s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. "As You Like It." Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. London: Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, 1623, act 3, sc. 2.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "As You Like It." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 3, sc. 2.

Things bygone are the only things that last:
The Present is mere grass, quick-mown away;
The Past is stone, and stands for ever fast.

Eugene Lee-Hamilton

More information about this quote

Topic

Past and present The past The present Impermanence

Author

Eugene Lee-Hamilton

Source

Sonnets of the Wingless Hours

Medium

Sonnet Poem

Language

English

Time

1894 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lee-Hamilton, Eugene. "Roman Baths." Sonnets of the Wingless Hours. Chicago and Cambridge: Stone & Kimball, 1894.

Some minds improve by travel, others, rather
Resemble copper wire, or brass,
Which gets the narrower by going farther!

Thomas Hood

More information about this quote

Topic

Learning from travel Effects of travel Travel

Author

Thomas Hood

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1845 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Hood, Thomas. "Ode to Rae Wilson, Esquire." Athenæum, 12 Aug. 1837.

Though the great artists of the past could not change the course of history, it is only through their work that we are able to break bread with the dead, and without communion with the dead a fully human life is impossible.

W.H. Auden

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of art Artists

Speaker

W.H. Auden

Source

Words and the Word

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1967 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Auden, W. H. "Words and the Word." Secondary Worlds. Random House, 1968. Originally a lecture given on Oct. 1967, University of Kent, Canterbury, England, UK.

The best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds.

Edgar A. Guest

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Topic

Practice what you preach Personal integrity

Author

Edgar A. Guest

Source

Sermons We See

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Guest, Edgar. Sermons We See. c. 1926.

Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam,
His first, best country ever is at home.

Oliver Goldsmith

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Topic

Patriotism

Author

Oliver Goldsmith

Source

The Traveller

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1764 1760s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Traveller; or, a Prospect of Society. London: John Newbery, 1764.

There's no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.

Brendan Behan

More information about this quote

Topic

Publicity

Speaker

Brendan Behan

Source

My Brother Brendan

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Behan, Brendan. Quoted in My Brother Brendan, written by Dominic Behan. Simon and Schuster, 1965.

He that is not handsome at twenty, nor strong at thirty, nor rich at forty, nor wise at fifty, will never be handsome, strong, rich, or wise.

George Herbert

Jacula Prudentum

More information about this quote

Topic

Stages of life

Author

George Herbert

Source

Jacula Prudentum

Language

English

Time

1640 1640s 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. 345.