“Hymns are the poetry of the people.”

Radio Talk: BBC Radio (4 July 1975)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Hymns are the poetry of the people." by John Betjeman?
John Betjeman photo
John Betjeman 30
English poet, writer and broadcaster 1906–1984

Related quotes

Ursula Goodenough photo

“When I sing the hymns of faith in Jesus' love, I am drawn to their intimacy, their allure, their poetry. But in the end, such faith is simply not available to me.”

Source: The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998), p. 139
Context: For me, and probably for all of us, the concept of a personal, interested god can be appealing, often deeply so. In times of sorrow or despair, I often wonder what it would be like to be able to pray to God or Allah or Jehovah or Mary and believe that I was heard, believe that my petition might be answered. When I sing the hymns of faith in Jesus' love, I am drawn to their intimacy, their allure, their poetry. But in the end, such faith is simply not available to me. I can’t do it. I lack the resources to render my capacity for love and my need to be loved to supernatural Beings. And so I have no choice but to pour these capacities and needs into earthly relationships, fragile and mortal and difficult as they often are.

Hugo Ball photo

“All these poets are ascetics, monks and priests. They despise the flesh and all ballast. This world holds no enchantment for them... Poetry for them is the ultimate expression of the essence of things and thus is hymn and worship. Their poetry is one of divine names, of mysterious seals, and of spiritual extracts.”

Hugo Ball (1886–1927) German author, poet and one of the leading Dada artists

Quote of Ball, 21 July 1920, in Flucht aus der Zeit, p. 266; as quoted by Debbie Lewer in 'Papers of Surrealism Issue 6 Autumn 2007', p. 15, note 15
while reading a book of mystic writers, Ball noted this remark
after 1916

Wallace Stevens photo

“Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people.”

Adrian Mitchell (1932–2008) British writer

Poems (1964), Preface.

Ernesto Che Guevara photo
Peter Hitchens photo
Osip Mandelstam photo

“Only in Russia poetry is respected – it gets people killed. Is there anywhere else where poetry is so common a motive for murder?”

Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938) Russian poet and essayist

Quoted in Nadezhda Mandelstam, Hope Against Hope: A Memoir (1970), ch. 35

Robert E. Howard photo

“Don’t you think that as a people, Americans have less poetry, real poetry, in their souls than any other nations?”

Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) American author

From a letter to Robert W. Gordon (January 2, 1926)
Letters

José Martí photo

“Poetry is the work of the bard and of the people who inspire him.”

José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader

Poesia (1891)

Rupi Kaur photo

“People aren’t used to poetry that’s so easy and simple.”

Rupi Kaur (1992) Canadian poet

On her work in “ The young ‘Instapoet’ Rupi Kaur: from social media star to bestselling writer” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/27/rupi-kaur-i-dont-fit-age-race-class-of-bestselling-poet-milk-and-honey in The Guardian (2017 May 27)

Related topics