
It has been dated to at least 1927 http://www.fun-with-words.com/shortest_poem.html, as published in the Mt Rainier Nature News Notes (1 July 1927).
Misattributed
The Harp of Zion (1853)
It has been dated to at least 1927 http://www.fun-with-words.com/shortest_poem.html, as published in the Mt Rainier Nature News Notes (1 July 1927).
Misattributed
“A poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul.”
The Poetic Principle (1850)
“A good title is the title of a successful book.”
1950-07-06
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath (2000)
Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
The Poetic Principle (1850)
Context: I hold that a long poem does not exist. I maintain that the phrase, "a long poem," is simply a flat contradiction in terms.
I need scarcely observe that a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul. The value of the poem is in the ratio of this elevating excitement. But all excitements are, through a psychal necessity, transient. That degree of excitement which would entitle a poem to be so called at all, cannot be sustained throughout a composition of any great length.
“You must believe: a poem is a holy thing — a good poem, that is.”
Poetry and Craft (1965)
Dedication 'You and I' Macmillan, New York October 1914
Other Quotes
"Answers to Questions," from Mid-Century American Poets, edited by John Ciardi, 1950 [p. 171]
Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)
“To write good poems is the secret of brevity.”
Simplicity http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/21390/Simplicity
From the poems written in English