He who draws noble delights from sentiments of poetry is a true poet, though he has never written a line in all his life.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The poet does not know - often he will never know - whom he really writes for.
As things are, and as fundamentally they must always be, poetry is not a career, but a mug's game. No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanent value of what he has written: He may have wasted his time and messed up his life for nothing.
One can't write for all readers. A poet cannot write for people who don't like poetry.
There are not many poets whose fame rests on a single work.
Poetry must be made by all and not by one.
The poet must decide not to impose his feelings in order to write without sentimentality.
There is poetry even in prose, in all the great prose which is not merely utilitarian or didactic: there exist poets who write in prose or at least in more or less apparent prose; millions of poets write verses which have no connection with poetry.
A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.
No one ever was a great poet, that applied himself much to anything else.
Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself. He who has a contempt for poetry, cannot have much respect for himself, or for anything else.