To know anything of a poet but his poetry is, so far as the poetry is concerned, to know something that may be entertaining, even delightful, but is certainly inessential. – John Drinkwater
There can be no proof that Blakes lyric is composed of the best words in the best order only a conviction, accepted by our knowledge and judgment, that it is so. – 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
A lyric, it is true, is the expression of personal emotion, but then so is all poetry, and to suppose that there are several kinds of poetry, differing from each other in essence, is to be deceived by wholly artificial divisions which have no real being. – John Drinkwater