“One may quote bad poetry if it is by a great poet.”
On peut citer de mauvais vers, quand ils sont d'un grand poète.
Letter 4: Le Vicomte de Valmont to la Marquise de Merteuil. Trans. P.W.K. Stone (1961). http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Les_Liaisons_dangereuses_-_Lettre_4
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
Source: "Philip Massinger", a biographical essay in The Sacred Wood (1920)
“We talk so abstractly about poetry because all of us are usually bad poets.”
“If poets spoke their poetry, they would not need to write it.”
Poetry Quotes
“I think a good deal may be said to extenuate the fault of bad Poets.”
Preface.
The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope (1717)
Context: I think a good deal may be said to extenuate the fault of bad Poets. What we call a Genius, is hard to be distinguish'd by a man himself, from a strong inclination: and if his genius be ever so great, he can not at first discover it any other way, than by giving way to that prevalent propensity which renders him the more liable to be mistaken.
“The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens”, p. 66
The Third Book of Criticism (1969)
English translation originally from "Subramaniya Bharathi" at Tamilnation.org, also quoted in "Colliding worlds of tradition and revolution" in The Hindu (13 December 2009) http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/colliding-worlds-of-tradition-and-revolution/article662079.ece
“A satirical poet is the check of the laymen on bad priests.”
Preface to the Fables.
Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700)
