Poetry
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3.The poet: gift, inspiration and craft
3a.Inspiration and the Muse
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 17–18Telemachus defends the minstrel: singers are not to blame for sad songs, and men prize the newest song.read · scan
- p. 99–100The minstrel Demodocus is summoned, gifted by the god to gladden men with song as his spirit moves.read · scan
- p. 100–101The blind minstrel, loved by the Muse, who gave him song in place of sight, sings of famous men's quarrel.read · scan
- p. 110–111Odysseus honors the minstrel Demodocus, saying the Muse teaches singers the paths of song and that minstrels earn honor and worship from all men.read · scan
- p. 111–112Demodocus, inspired by Muse or Apollo, sings the fall of Troy truly as though present; Odysseus praises the gift of song and requests the wooden horse tale.read · scan
- p. 304–305Phemius the minstrel pleads for life, claiming to be self-taught, with the god putting songs in his heart, and singing under compulsion.read · scan
Plato, The Apology of SocratesVol. 2
- p. 9Poets write not by wisdom but by genius and inspiration, like diviners who cannot explain their own fine sayings.read · scan
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 210Musaeus, the sacred poet, guides them; poets inspired by their god dwell among the blessed.read · scan
- p. 316Creteus, dear to the Muses, sang the fight and fell; arms his business, verses his delight.read · scan
Plutarch, DemosthenesVol. 12
- p. 197–198He is said to have spoken in ecstasy, like a man inspired, uttering a metrical adjuration; comedians mocked his antithesis.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 191Pliny writes on tablets while hunting, finding that woods and silence stir the mind to composition and meditation.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20
- p. 9Invocation of the Muses and of the mind that kept a written record of what he saw.read · scan
- p. 131Dante invokes the Muses, lamenting his lack of rough, hoarse rhymes to describe the pit of Hell and the need for truthful song.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 145–146Dante invokes Calliope and describes his genius as a light bark leaving the cruel sea.read · scan
- p. 242Dante describes himself as scribe of love, writing as Love dictates; Buonaggiunta sees this as the sweet new style old poets lacked.read · scan
- p. 262Dante invokes the Muses, Helicon and Urania to aid his verse in describing things that almost mock the grasp of thought.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 285Dante invokes Apollo and laurel for his song, seeking inspiration to set forth the shadow of heaven.read · scan
- p. 289Dante warns readers in small boats to turn back from his unprecedented song, guided by Minerva, Apollo and the Muses.read · scan
- p. 361–363Invocation to the Muse to help him set forth the shapesread · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 252–254Poesy came upon him in his cell, prompting him to write with brick-paste ink; the jail gives eloquence and high thoughts.read · scan
Edmund Spenser, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 236–237Poet asks Phoebus, father of the Muses, to grant him this one day in return for his honoring him.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 211–213The poet cannot find words for woe; his Muse tells him to look in his heart and write.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at School and at College, 1624-1632Vol. 4
- p. 7–9The poet invokes the Heavenly Muse to bring a humble ode and hymn to greet the Infant God.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at Horton, 1632-1638Vol. 4
- p. 34–39Poet serves the Muse; songs of nightingale and May greeting.read · scan
- p. 57The Spirit tells of meditating his rural minstrelsy until fancy is filled, then hearing the Lady's song.read · scan
Jonathan Swift, A Letter of Advice to a Young PoetVol. 27
- p. 114Swift ironically advises the young poet on composition: bombast, invocations of the Muses, mottoes and padded epithets, mocking modern poetic fashion.read · scan
Thomas Gray, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 451–453Invocation to the Aeolian lyre and Pindaric stream of music from Helicon.read · scan
William Collins, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 480–481Poet hopes Fancy, Friendship, Science and Peace will love the name of Eve.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 14The poet defends poetry's godlike power, harmony from his soul, that reveals nature and man's spirit; the merryman treats it as drama for moving audiences.read · scan
- p. 15–17The poet longs for youth's unbidden inspiration, while the manager demands action and lavish stage spectacle over talk of the poetic vein.read · scan
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for ScandalVol. 18
- p. 109–110The Muse is invoked and found inadequate to portray the model; poets and Reynolds's painting would be surpassed by her portrait.read · scan
- p. 110The poet's Muse is told to cease and credits Mrs. Crewe as inspirer and model.read · scan
William Blake, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 591–592Love's fire in his soul inspires his song.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 94–96Drink helps an author's wit and rhyme.read · scan
- p. 175–177The Muse Coila hails Burns as her inspired bard; unseen spirits teach the bard his tuneful art.read · scan
- p. 177–179Coila recounts inspiring Burns's rustic song, and counsels him to fan his tuneful flame and prize his humble bardship above kings' regard.read · scan
- p. 276–278Scenery kindles poetic ardour; Poesy might wake her lyre and look through Nature with creative fire.read · scan
- p. 314–316Invokes Muse, Parnassus and Helicon to gain poetic skill to sing his love.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 631–633Praise of the Muse and her divine employment, training her sons for hope and calm enjoyment; the poet wishes Scott's fancy to sustain him.read · scan
- p. 670–672Sonnet on Fancy and meditation: without Thought and Love, break off commerce with the Muse.read · scan
- p. 672–674If Thought and Love desert us, break with the Muse; inspiration falls on the humblest lay.read · scan
William Hazlitt, Of Persons One Would Wish to Have SeenVol. 27
- p. 271Praise of Chaucer as first to tune the native tongue, Dante and Ariosto; poets' genius and inspiration.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of PoetryVol. 27
- p. 354Poetry is divine, centre and circumference of knowledge, arising from inspiration not will; composition follows inspiration's decline.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 827–829Skylark hymned as blithe spirit pouring forth strains of unpremeditated art.read · scan
- p. 829–832Skylark compared to a hidden poet; its song surpasses all human music; poet begs to learn its gladness so the world might listen.read · scan
- p. 849–850The guitar as music and oracle voices poetic inspiration, speaking only to those who question it well.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, CharacteristicsVol. 25
- p. 322–323Genius is a secret to itself: Shakspeare unaware of wonder in Hamlet, Milton more conscious and inferior.read · scan
- p. 323–324Poetry and eloquence are named as forms of intellect whose right performance is spontaneous; the critic advises blotting out the excellent sentence.read · scan
- p. 338Modern literature is self-conscious; lacks inspiration and spontaneous devotion to its object, and singers know they sing melodiously.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25
- p. 420–421Scott, like Shakspeare, wrote spontaneously with no ulterior aim; whether such utterance is living fire or mere firework depends on the mind.read · scan
John Keats, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 875–877He flies to the nightingale on the viewless wings of Poesy, escaping the dull brain.read · scan
- p. 880–881Poet offers tuneless numbers to Psyche, a goddess without temple, and sings by his own inspired eyes.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5
- p. 93–94The best part of a writer is what he does not know; fable expresses thought above the writer's will, as in Dante and Shakespeare.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Over-SoulVol. 5
- p. 143Distinguishes poets like Herbert from Pope: those who speak from within versus mere spectators.read · scan
- p. 144Great poets like Homer, Shakespeare and Milton speak humanity's wisdom and let the informing soul flow; their works are less than the soul behind them.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The PoetVol. 5
- p. 172Poems are transcripts of nature's own poems; the poet overhears melodies of things, and criticism tests poems against nature's text.read · scan
- p. 173The poet names truly by resigning himself to the divine aura in forms and speaking with the intellect inebriated, not used as organ.read · scan
- p. 174Poets and artists seek exhilaration through wine and opium, but true inspiration comes only to the pure and simple soul; Milton's water-drinking epic poet.read · scan
- p. 175Poetry is God's wine; the poet should live plainly and be inspired by nature; poets are liberating gods through tropes and fables.read · scan
- p. 180The poet pours out verses and finds something original and beautiful that he feels is not his own.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1255–1257Song and rhyme as the voice of nature; the poet is urged to weave a nobler rhymeread · scan
Robert Browning, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1108–1109The Ring and the Book's dedication invokes his lost wife as inspiration for song.read · scan
Matthew Arnold, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1126–1128Apollo and the Muses in the Helicon lyric; poetry's divine choir.read · scan
Walter Bagehot, John MiltonVol. 28
- p. 190–191Milton's invocation of Urania: song inspired by heavenly muse, not classical Muses; he sings on evil days and seeks fit audience though few.read · scan
3b.Born poet or made poet
Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33
- p. 54–56Herodotus argues Homer knew the Egyptian version of Helen's story but chose another as better suited to his poem.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Old AgeVol. 9
- p. 52Sophocles composed tragedies to extreme old age, and poets and philosophers pursued their art until death.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9
- p. 129–130He has written three books in verse on his own times and is returning to the gentler Muses.read · scan
Plutarch, CiceroVol. 12
- p. 218–219Cicero wrote the poem Pontius Glaucus as a boy and was once thought Rome's best poet, though his verses are now forgotten.read · scan
- p. 251For recreation he writes verses, five hundred in a night.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 229Spurinna composes elegant Greek and Latin lyrics, whose charm is heightened by his blameless life.read · scan
- p. 244Pliny reflects on literature reviving and his own craft of composing and reciting.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20
- p. 6Dante credits Virgil as master from whom he took the style that brought him fame.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 179–181Dante addresses the reader, noting his theme rises and he must prop the structure more artfully.read · scan
- p. 230–232Statius tells of his fame, his Thebaid and Achilleid, and his debt to Virgil's Aeneid as the nurse of his inspiration.read · scan
- p. 234Dante listens to the two poets converse, gaining lessons of sweet poesy; Virgil lists poets and their characters in limbo.read · scan
- p. 280Poet says limited space and the bridle of art forbid singing further of the sweet water.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27
- p. 41–42Poets lack desert; poesy is a divine gift, poeta nascitur, needing art, imitation and exercise, which English writers misuse.read · scan
Ben Jonson, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 301A good poet is made as well as born; Shakespeare's true-filed lines show labor and art.read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 362–363Lists powers like eloquence and science; nothing about poetry.read · scan
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34
- p. 9Poesy and eloquence are gifts of nature rather than study; the best poets need not know the art of poetry.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 321–323Some are born poets, all naturally inclined to rhythm, since the soul is harmonical.read · scan
John Milton, Tractate on EducationVol. 3
- p. 242Poetry, learned through Aristotle and Horace, teaches the laws of epic, drama and lyric and its religious, glorious use.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 318–319Bunyan defends his authorship of the Pilgrim's Progress in verse, claiming matter and manner came from his own heart, head, and pen.read · scan
John Dryden, Preface to Fables, Ancient and ModernVol. 39
- p. 153The author reflects on his craft, choosing between verse and prose, and on the duty not to rush works before the public.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 149–150One who wishes to excel in English poetry should not begin by writing Latin verses.read · scan
Jonathan Swift, A Letter of Advice to a Young PoetVol. 27
- p. 107–108Ironically holds that scholarship is unnecessary or harmful to the poet; mocks poetic 'ordination' and the title of divine poets.read · scan
- p. 108–109Denies learning or philosophy is necessary to poetry; cites Shakespeare as excellent poet without scholarship and poets' declining esteem.read · scan
- p. 109–110Rejects Petronius's flood of learning; wit should spring from a poet's own root like a fountain, and he should improve on ancients, not steal.read · scan
- p. 110–111Advises young poets to learn the ancients by these expedients.read · scan
- p. 113Advises poets to frequent coffeehouses and playhouses, read modern plays, and keep a commonplace book as supplemental memory.read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1
- p. 15–16Versifying is valued as discipline for word-variety and mastery.read · scan
- p. 26–27Keimer composes verse directly in type, very indifferently, an elegy for the poet Aquila Rose.read · scan
- p. 37–38The friends compose versions of the eighteenth Psalm and criticize each other's verse to improve language and expression.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 80–82Burns calls himself a chance rhymer; nature's fire and the muse, not learning, make song touch the heart.read · scan
- p. 220–222The simple bard, unbroke by rules of art, pours out the heart's wild effusions inspired by Nature.read · scan
William Wordsworth, Preface to Poems (1815)Vol. 39
- p. 297Wordsworth lists the powers a poet requires: observation, sensibility, reflection, imagination and fancy, invention, and judgement.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25
- p. 403–404Popular dramatists producing tragedies in hours or months contrasted with Cervantes writing Don Quixote in prison.read · scan
- p. 443Great writers like Shakspeare, Milton, Dante and Goethe achieved their work through intense thought and struggle, not ease; creation is hard labor of the soul.read · scan
John Henry Newman, The Idea of a UniversityVol. 28
- p. 52–53Horace, educated above his rank, has a turn for poetry.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-RelianceVol. 5
- p. 79Shakespeare cannot be made by studying Shakespeare; Dante and Moses spoke with their own utterance.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Over-SoulVol. 5
- p. 145Beside a grandly simple mind, literature looks like word-catching and the mere author a pickpocket.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5
- p. 268The poet's creative imagination gives only the superficial advantage of expression, a knack.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 138Mill describes his craft of composition: double drafting, combining freshness of conception with precision, and the importance of arrangement.read · scan
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 922–923Pan cuts a reed to make music, thereby making a poet out of a man, at cost and pain.read · scan
James Russell Lowell, DemocracyVol. 28
- p. 452Only great poets seem to have an unsolicited profusion of unexpected phrase and variety of topic.read · scan
3c.The poet as seer, namer and legislator
See also: Beauty 6a · Prophecy 1d · Sign and Symbol 5a · Truth 4d
Plato, PhaedoVol. 2
- p. 88Homer's Odysseus scolding his heart is cited as evidence that the poet conceived the soul as ruler of the body.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20
- p. 78Dante describes his own denunciation as 'sung', and Virgil approves the true words.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 278Beatrice commands Dante to write down what he sees for the profit of the world.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 360Dante fears his song will displease many yet is bidden to reveal the whole vision; its bitterness will nourishread · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 379–380Poets feigned inanimate things possessed by spirits; anything a poet made a person became a god or devil.read · scan
Thomas Gray, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 456–458The bard with prophet's fire strikes his lyre; fellow poets slain; song has magic power.read · scan
William Wordsworth, Prefaces to Various Volumes of PoemsVol. 39
- p. 277–278Asks what a poet is: a man speaking to men, with livelier sensibility, who conjures passions and expresses them readily.read · scan
- p. 281Poet is the rock of defence for human nature, binding society by passion and knowledge; poetry is the breath of all knowledge, immortal as the heart.read · scan
- p. 281–282The poet will follow science's discoveries, making them objects of his art and avoiding ornament that assumes his subject is mean.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 604–606The Poet's dream and consecration are what the poet would once have added to the scene.read · scan
- p. 633–635Without the poetic voice, human deeds and even Nature's features would not win us; Scott's tales gave Yarrow its power; future bards will sing it.read · scan
- p. 660–661The poet's encounter becomes a lesson; the old man's measured, lofty speech and dreamlike aspect appear as poetic vision.read · scan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 701–702Poet longs to revive the maiden's song and build the dome in air through music; the inspired poet is holy and dreaded.read · scan
- p. 731–732The wind is addressed as actor and mighty poet, telling tragic and tender tales.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 234Renzo calls the wit a poet and says he too makes verses; the narrator contrasts the true poet as sacred genius.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of PoetryVol. 27
- p. 329–330Poets are those with excess faculty of approximating the beautiful order; their language is vitally metaphorical, and every early author is a poet.read · scan
- p. 331–332Poets are authors of language, music, arts, and founders of laws, civil society and religion; poet unites legislator and prophet.read · scan
- p. 356Poetry transmutes all things to loveliness, renews the world dulled by familiarity; the poet is creator and ought to be wisest and happiest.read · scan
- p. 358Poetry in the universal sense is source of all order and beauty; poets are unacknowledged legislators of the world.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 834–835Poet asks to be the wind's lyre, his verse scattering words among mankind like sparks.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, CharacteristicsVol. 25
- p. 345–346Byron, Shelley and Schlegel are shown as poets and thinkers in agony of doubt; an inspired Poesy is awaited.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American ScholarVol. 5
- p. 8–9The poet chanting was felt divine, and the chant becomes divine too; worship of the record corrupts.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The PoetVol. 5
- p. 161Opening verses on bards who see nature's musical order; introduces the nature and function of the Poet.read · scan
- p. 162The poet is representative, the complete man who best receives and imparts; he expresses what others cannot report of nature.read · scan
- p. 163The poet is the Sayer, sovereign namer who expresses beauty; his words are primary, and heroes and sages serve him like models to a painter.read · scan
- p. 164True poet announces what none foretold and hears primal poetry; a mere skilled lyrist of conventional life is not a true poet.read · scan
- p. 165–166The birth of a poet is the principal event in chronology; the reader hopes for a guide to heaven but is often disappointed by vanity.read · scan
- p. 169The poet reattaches even factories and railways to nature and the Whole, seeing them within the great Order.read · scan
- p. 170The poet articulates the world, giving symbols new power and speech to the dumb, seeing thought independent of symbol.read · scan
- p. 171The poet is Namer and language-maker, naming things after appearance or essence because he sees them.read · scan
- p. 176Poets are liberating gods; imaginative books value the transcendental and extraordinary over arguments and criticism.read · scan
- p. 177The poet frees us with new thought and reads the meaning of forms; imaginative books endure.read · scan
- p. 178The poet or seer sees through the changing appearance to the firm nature and declares it.read · scan
- p. 181The poet must persist; rich poets like Homer and Shakespeare mirror every created thing; his reward is that the ideal becomes real.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, NatureVol. 5
- p. 232Poet and prophet value their utterance above any hearer, which is why it gets spoken.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5
- p. 422Poetic influence from Oxford and Cambridge graduates gives veracity to art and moves mankind.read · scan
- p. 442–443Science is false by not being poetic; the poet sees creatures as steps in the Creator's path.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1241–1243The poet gathers a second crop in song, brings thoughts from nature, and speaks the god of the wood's word.read · scan
- p. 1249–1250The poet is at home in the woods, a forest seer and minstrel of the natural year.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 110–111Mill sees Carlyle as a poet and man of intuition, and a still greater one as more poet than Carlyle.read · scan
Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of GrassVol. 39
- p. 391The great poet is the equable man, arbiter and equalizer of his age, more a referee than presidents; his thoughts are hymns.read · scan
- p. 391–393The greatest poet is a seer who sees the sacred in common people and whose presence conquers without struggle.read · scan
- p. 393–395The poet goes directly to creation; a life lived by these precepts makes one's very flesh a great poem.read · scan
- p. 396The poet is a free channel of things without elegance, effect or originality intervening; he tells things as they are.read · scan
- p. 397Great poets show unconstraint, defy precedent, and address each reader as an equal.read · scan
- p. 399Poets cheer up slaves and horrify despots as the voice and exposition of liberty.read · scan
- p. 401Poets of the kosmos have genuineness superior to fiction, find beauty in all facts, and reach first principles.read · scan
- p. 402Great poets show no tricks and are justified by perfect personal candor; histories told properly need no romances.read · scan
- p. 403Describes the qualities of the greatest poet: health, sense of nature's oneness, and a larger prudence.read · scan
- p. 404–406The greatest poet must absorb his own age and be the age transfigured, opened to eternity.read · scan
Walter Bagehot, John MiltonVol. 28
- p. 173–174He who would write well of praiseworthy things must himself be a true poem, a pattern of the best and most honorable things.read · scan
Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1198–1199Poets as music-makers and dreamers who shape the world, with songs and dreams building and destroying empires.read · scan
3d.The poet's life, poverty and patronage
See also: Madness 3b
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Old AgeVol. 9
- p. 62Aged poets like Naevius, Plautus and Livius Andronicus took pleasure in their writing.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9
- p. 113–114He cut short his poem to Caesar and will write verse for a friend whose poetic springs run dry.read · scan
Plutarch, DemosthenesVol. 12
- p. 191A poem honoring Alcibiades' Olympic victory claimed happiness requires a famous birthplace; small places yield actors and poets.read · scan
Plutarch, CaesarVol. 12
- p. 264Captive, he wrote verses and speeches, read them to the pirates, and called those who did not admire them barbarous.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 199A plentiful crop of poets recites in April, but audiences are indifferent; Pliny praises authors who persevere and attends out of friendship.read · scan
- p. 336–337He names his villas tragic and comic, and takes pleasure that his published works are sold abroad and praised.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 391Dante hopes his sacred poem, product of heaven and earth and years of toil, will win him return to Florence and the poet's laurel.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 189Bembo, learned and unrivalled in poetry, is ignorant of the sculptor's art; his medal bears a Pegasus.read · scan
Michael Drayton, Agincourt; To the Virginian Voyage; Love's FarewellVol. 40
- p. 225–228Hope that a poet may be crowned with laurel there, and Hakluyt's writings praised to inflame men to seek fame.read · scan
Christopher Marlowe, Edward the SecondVol. 46
- p. 8–9Gaveston plans poets, wits, musicians, masques and shows to please the king's delight in music and poetry.read · scan
Philip Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old DebtsVol. 47
- p. 941–943The epilogue begs the audience's applause for the players and poet, whose craft depends on their favour.read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 363–364Discusses value and honour of men; nothing about poetry.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at Horton, 1632-1638Vol. 4
- p. 72Poet questions the worth of tending the thankless Muse, citing Orpheus who was killed despite his Muse.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written During the Civil War and the Protectorate, 1642-1658Vol. 4
- p. 78–79Sonnets plead that the Muse's house be spared, as Alexander spared Pindar's, and mock the neglect of the author's book.read · scan
John Dryden, Dedication of the AeneisVol. 13
- p. 69–71Closing wish that the patron live long for the encouragement of letters and the ornament of poetry, addressed to a fellow poet.read · scan
John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18
- p. 16Satirizes amateur wits who write poetry needlessly and attack professional poets, who write for subsistence.read · scan
- p. 17Bad poets seek fame; Maecenas gained repute through Virgil and Horace; modern patrons lack his liberality.read · scan
John Dryden, Preface to Fables, Ancient and ModernVol. 39
- p. 162–163Satirical poet acts as the check of laymen on bad priests; poets' patronage by princes.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 149Forcing verse on a child without genius is waste; a father should not want a poet son, since poetry rarely profits, and reading the great poets serves better.read · scan
Jonathan Swift, A Letter of Advice to a Young PoetVol. 27
- p. 104Swift ironically encourages a young man to make poetry his profession, claiming all eminent men have had some taste of poetry.read · scan
- p. 105Swift's ironic instruction to a would-be poet: modern professional poetry is disengaged from virtue and piety.read · scan
- p. 115Ironic counsel that poets should dress badly, avoid panegyric and begin with libel and satire, since fiction is their trade.read · scan
- p. 116Ironically counsels the young poet to prove his wit by satire, abandon good nature, and hire his muse to a party.read · scan
- p. 116–117Mocks the abundance of bad Irish poets and urges governors to encourage poetry, jesting that poets' paper serves trades.read · scan
- p. 117–118Ironically laments the lack of a Grub Street to contain the town's poetic output, likened to an excretory drain.read · scan
- p. 118Proposes a public alley for the Muses and poets, mocking satirists as scavengers who leave more filth than they clear.read · scan
- p. 119–120Proposes a chartered bank and a corporation of poets, counting three hundred performing poets in town, mocking their pretensions.read · scan
- p. 121Mocks the swarm of poetasters and proposes poets-laureate, city bards and household poets, concluding the ironic letter.read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1
- p. 7Uncle Benjamin left volumes of occasional verse addressed to friends and relations.read · scan
- p. 14–15He wrote ballads, wretched stuff, but his father's ridicule ended his verse-making: verse-makers are generally beggars.read · scan
- p. 37Ralph wants to pursue poetry for fame and fortune; Osborne dissuades him; Franklin approves poetry only to improve one's language.read · scan
- p. 38–39Ralph is set on becoming a poet until Pope cures him; he becomes a good prose writer.read · scan
- p. 43Ralph sends epic poem drafts; Franklin discourages him with Young's satire on the folly of pursuing the Muses for advancement.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Life of Addison, 1672-1719Vol. 27
- p. 156–157Addison cultivated poetry and criticism at Oxford, gaining patronage through Latin verses and praised for his Latin style; Boileau's regard for English poetry.read · scan
- p. 159–160Addison is chosen as the better poet to celebrate the victory at Blenheim.read · scan
- p. 160–161Addison's opera Rosamond was hissed on stage; Johnson mocks servile dedications.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Preface to the English DictionaryVol. 39
- p. 198He calls his early hopes the dreams of a poet doomed to wake a lexicographer.read · scan
Oliver Goldsmith, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 509–520The poet bids farewell to Poetry, nurse of virtue and arts, source of his bliss and woe, asking it to aid truth and teach against gain.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 9The poet laments his earlier hearers gone and his song now stirring only pangs before strangers, with the lyre image.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 25–26He notes that making rhymes does little to earn a living.read · scan
- p. 134–136Poet dedicates his simple Scottish lays to a friend, scorning mercenary motives.read · scan
- p. 187–189Letter answering a patron's note at the start of his poetic career.read · scan
- p. 206–207Venal poets flatter the king; the honest poet won'tread · scan
- p. 210–211The poet and patron are humbly comparedread · scan
- p. 222–224The poet's rhyming earns only nothing for reward.read · scan
- p. 230–231The rustic bard learns his craft from birds, refuses venal dedications, and seeks honest fame and a generous patron.read · scan
- p. 278–280Burns's petition poem to the Duke of Athole, in which the river praises the bard and musing poets.read · scan
- p. 311–312Poet is Nature's whimsical creation, admired but unfit for fortune's strife, needing a patron.read · scan
- p. 312–314Poet pleads for patron's aid, distinguishing himself from begging rhymers and vowing the plough before such shame.read · scan
- p. 320The poet is defenseless against booksellers and critics who tear his fame and leave him neglected.read · scan
- p. 321–323Poets and their Muses lack the dull man's equanimity, swinging between heaven and hell.read · scan
- p. 325–327Apollo pays Vulcan with a sonnet; poet pays smiths likewise.read · scan
- p. 336–338Poet defies the critics and seeks a patron to honour his verse, invoking genius as the father of fiction.read · scan
- p. 338–339Poet calls himself a poor son of the Muses excusing his verse to a patron.read · scan
- p. 402–403The bard's harp and rustic song, fostered by his patron, give tribute in verseread · scan
- p. 423–425The poet's lot: helpless, savaged by critics and booksellers, sinking in neglected age while his bays are torn away.read · scan
- p. 425–426Contrasts stolid Dulness with the mad-cap Muses' train, never dwelling in equanimity.read · scan
William Wordsworth, Essay Supplementary to PrefaceVol. 39
- p. 330Wordsworth defends his own poems against hostility, trusting the labour bestowed upon them will endure.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 658–659Poets begin in gladness but end in despondency and madness, as with Chatterton.read · scan
- p. 661–663Poet's thoughts of mighty poets dead in misery; resolves to think of the leech-gatherer for support.read · scan
Sir Walter Scott, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 754–755Scott bids farewell to the Minstrel Harp, dismissing censure of his idle lay and thanking poetry for solace through hidden grief.read · scan
- p. 756The poet's farewell to the harp, whose dying notes fade like an enchantress's spell.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of PoetryVol. 27
- p. 356Defends poets against calumnies; greatest poets were most virtuous, prudent and fortunate men.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25
- p. 408Perhaps our greatest poets are mute Miltons; Shakespeare might have lived killing calves; sentimentalism of Byron mocked.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5
- p. 410Sidney's Arcadia and Milton's Comus were written in noble houses under patronage.read · scan
Walter Bagehot, John MiltonVol. 28
- p. 167–168Milton's youth of studious poetic musings, the period of Lycidas and Comus, needs little reference to public affairs.read · scan
- p. 168A life of poetic retirement needs little reference to public affairs; Milton wrote Paradise Lost amid adversity.read · scan
- p. 179–180Milton's lack of humor and ordinary human feeling comes from a recluse's life; a poet needs sympathy with mankind's occupations.read · scan
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