If it is an imperfect word, no external circumstance can heighten its value as poetry. – John Drinkwater
For while the subjects of poetry are few and recurrent, the moods of man are infinitely various and unstable. It is the same in all arts. – John Drinkwater
But in the finished art of the song the use of words has no connection with the use of words in poetry. – John Drinkwater
The musician – if he be a good one – finds his own perception prompted by the poets perception, and he translates the expression of that perception from the terms of poetry into the terms of music. – John Drinkwater