"Poetry is not a mere shuffling of dead words or even a corralling of live ones."

Theodore Roethke Literature See all quotes by Theodore Roethke →

React to this quote

More by Theodore Roethke

See all

“Stanely Kunitz on his friend Theodore Roethke”

“In our age, if a boy or girl is untalented, the odds are in favor of their thinking they want to write.”

“There's a point where plainness is no longer a virtue, when it becomes excessively bald, wrenched.”

“Being, not doing, is my first joy.”

“You can't make poetry simply by avoiding clichés.”

“Roethke at the Modern American Poetry Site”

Resonant Thoughts

"What matters above all is sovereignty, the right to make our own laws......the right to remain independent of the unworthy, undemocratic, unprincipled, authoritarian, bureaucratic rabble of Brussels."

— George MacDonald Fraser

Literature1925–2008

#writing

"Note the situation is different when the player is permitted to vary his stakes. In this case there exist advantageous strategies, and the game depends on the strategy."

— William Feller

Mathematics1906–1970

#writing

"There are people who barely feel poetry, and they are generally dedicated to teaching it."

— Jorge Luis Borges

Literature1899–1986

#education

"The Saviour of the future — if ever he comes — will not preach a new Gospel. He will merely utilize my aristocracy, he will make effective the goodwill and the good temper which are already existing. …"

— E. M. Forster

Literature1879–1970

#time