“Ye are better than all the ballads
That ever were sung or said;
For ye are living poems,
And all the rest are dead.”
Children, st. 9 (1858).
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow202
American poet 1807–1882Related quotes
Matthew Lewis (writer) book The Monk
Page 313; "Alonzo the Brave, and Fair Imogine", line 11.
The Monk (1796)
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer
Variant: Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.
Source: A Poetry Handbook
Louis C.K. (1967) American comedian and actor
http://splitsider.com/2013/02/the-annotated-wisdom-of-louis-c-k/
“Mourn, ye Graces and Loves, and all you whom the Graces love. My lady's sparrow is dead, the sparrow my lady's pet, whom she loved more than her own eyes.”
Lugete, O Veneres Cupidinesque,
Et quantum est hominum venustiorum.
Passer mortuus est meae puellae,
Passer, deliciae meae puellae.
Gaio Valerio Catullo list of poems by Catullus
III, lines 1–4
Lord Byron's translation:
Ye Cupids, droop each little head,
Nor let your wings with joy be spread:
My Lesbia's favourite bird is dead,
Whom dearer than her eyes she loved.
Carmina
“Bad work follers ye ez long's ye live.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat
No. 2.
The Biglow Papers (1848–1866), Series II (1866)