“A poet must be a passionate lover of language.” — Louis Untermeyer | V2Melody

“A poet must be a passionate lover of language.”

Linking poetic achievement with an intense attention to words · Literary criticism (commonly attributed)

Louis Untermeyer

About Louis Untermeyer

Louis Untermeyer

1 October 1885–18 December 1977

In the sprawling landscape of twentieth-century American letters, few figures cast as long or as peculiar a shadow as Louis Untermeyer. Born on October 1, 1885, in New York City, and dying ninety-two years later on December 18, 1977, in Newtown, Connecticut, Untermeyer occupied a unique position in American cultural…

More by Louis Untermeyer

Poems by Louis Untermeyer

More remarks by Louis Untermeyer

“The poet is not a man who says things, but one who makes things happen.”

Emphasising poetry’s active effect on readers and the world · Literary criticism (commonly attributed)

Art
Poetry

“The imagination is the instrument of poetry.”

Treating imaginative vision as central to poetic creation · Essay on poetry (commonly attributed)

Art
Poetry

“Poetry is the art of saying more and more with less and less.”

A concise account of poetry’s power to compress meaning into language · Literary criticism (commonly attributed)

Art
Poetry