“Good poetry is not contained in words that are difficult to understand and interpret. Good poetry is based on its ability to touch and move feelings.”

Last update Nov. 30, 2023. History

“Paradoxically, the simpler poetry is, the more difficult it becomes for a critic to discuss intelligently. Trained to explicate, the critic often loses the ability to evaluate literature outside the critical act. A work is good only in proportion to the richness and complexity of interpretations it provokes.”

Dana Gioia (1950) American writer

"The Anonymity of the Regional Poet: Ted Kooser," from Can Poetry Matter? Essays on Poetry and American Culture (1992)
Essays

“Fancy demanding feeling from poetry! That's not the main thing at all. Radiant words, words of light, full of rhythm and music, that's poetry.”

Théophile Gautier Paris

Demander à la poésie du sentimentalisme…ce n'est pas ça. Des mots rayonnants, des mots de lumière…avec un rythme et une musique, voilà ce que c'est, la poésie.
Remark, June 22, 1863, reported in the Journal des Goncourts (Paris: Bibliothèque-Charpentier, 1888) vol. 2, p. 123, (ellipses in the original); Arnold Hauser (trans. Stanley Godman and Arnold Hauser) The Social History of Art (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1951) vol. 2, p. 684.

“I don't understand poetry. We studied it in high school and college, but they never told us why it was good.”

Tom Lehrer (1928) American singer-songwriter and mathematician

Quotes from interviews, Insider Audio interview (1997)
Context: I don't appreciate poetry--I don't mind admitting that now, I don't understand poetry. We studied it in high school and college, but they never told us why it was good. I got A's on all the exams--"Hail to thee blithe spirit, bird thou never wert"-- what the hell does that mean? I have no idea.

“Classical poetry counts on people's similarity. It regards idea associations as unequivocal. This is a mistake. In any case, it rests on a fulcrum of idea associations: 'Above the peaks is peace.'... The poet counts on poetic feelings. And what is a poetic feeling? The whole poetry of peace / quiet stands or falls on the reader's ability to feel. Words are not judged here.”

Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) German artist

1920s
Source: 'Consistent Poetry Art', Schwitters' contribution to 'Magazine G', No. 3, 1924, ed. Hans Richter; as quoted in I is Style, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, (commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam), NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 151.