Any long work in which poetry is persistent, be it epic or drama or narrative, is really a succession of separate poetic experiences governed into a related whole by an energy distinct from that which evoked them. – 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
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
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