I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean. – Socrates

It sometimes seems to me (it is an error, I confess, but one into which I am for ever falling) that poetry is no longer anything more than an imitation of poetry… – Alexandre Vinet (1797–1847)

The poet… may be used as a barometer, but let us not forget that he is also part of the weather. – Lionel Trilling, The Liberal Imagination, 1950