“Unless it be wholly numbed in some such way, the delight of poetry is…” — John Drinkwater | V2Melody

“Unless it be wholly numbed in some such way, the delight of poetry is ready to quicken in almost every man; and with a little use it will quicken only to what is worthy.”

Expressing faith in a nearly universal capacity to respond to poetry · Essay, The Lyric, The Popularity of Lyric

John Drinkwater

About John Drinkwater

John Drinkwater

1 June 1882–25 March 1937

John Drinkwater, born on 1 June 1882 and dead on 25 March 1937, was one of the most visible English men of letters of the years between the First World War and the rise of high modernism. Poet, playwright, actor, theatre manager, critic, lecturer, anthologist, and autobiographer, he possessed a public versatility that…

More by John Drinkwater

Poems by John Drinkwater

More remarks by John Drinkwater

“And it seems to me, further, that what we have in our minds when we speak of lyric is precisely this same quality; that lyric and the expression of pure poetic energy unrelated to other energies are the same thing.”

Identifying lyric with poetry in its most concentrated form · Essay, The Lyric, What Is Lyric

Art
Poetry

“The poet’s perfect expression is the token of a perfect experience; what he says in the best possible way he has felt in the best possible way, that is, completely.”

Connecting exact expression with completeness of feeling · Essay, The Lyric, The Best Words in the Best Order

“It so happens that this energy, next to the poetic energy, is the most impressive and satisfying of all mental activities, and while poetry may exist independently of it, the fact remains that it very rarely does so.”

Valuing formal organisation as poetry’s closest creative companion · Essay, The Lyric, Lyric Forms

Art
Poetry