Inside: Master poet quotes that will get you thinking.

Poetry has always been a beautiful way to capture the essence of our emotions, thoughts, and experiences. As a lover of words and rhythm, I can’t help but be drawn to the eloquence and wisdom of master poets.

Their verses have the power to move us, inspire us, and make us see the world in a whole new light. So, let’s take a journey through the timeless words of some of the greatest poets in history.

Photo of old school pen and glasses that poets wear

Get ready to be enchanted by the magic of poetry, one quote at a time.

Master Poet Quotes

Immerse yourself in the first selection of master poet quotes, whose words have the power to move and inspire us like nothing else

1. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. “The only journey is the one within.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

3. “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.” – Emily Dickinson

4. “We are such stuff as dreams are made on.” – William Shakespeare

5. “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” – Mary Oliver

6. “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” – William Ernest Henley

7. “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.” – Robert Frost

8. “Do I dare disturb the universe?” – T.S. Eliot

9. “This above all: to thine own self be true.” – William Shakespeare

10. “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost

11. “I celebrate myself, and sing myself.” – Walt Whitman

12. “And still, I rise.” – Maya Angelou

13. “Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me.” – Emily Dickinson

14. “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?” – W.H. Davies

15. “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.” – T.S. Eliot

16. “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” – John Keats

17. “I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart).” – E.E. Cummings

18. “And miles to go before I sleep.” – Robert Frost

19. “Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.” – William Shakespeare

20. “O Captain! My Captain!” – Walt Whitman

21. “I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” – W.B. Yeats

22. “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” – Alexander Pope

23. “If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.” – Emily Dickinson

Love-is-the-poetry-of-the-senses.-Honore-de-Balzac

More Iconic Quotes from Brilliant Minds

Continuing our exploration, here are more profound and beautiful master poet quotes from poets who have shaped our understanding of life and love.

24. “Let us go then, you and I, when the evening is spread out against the sky.” – T.S. Eliot

25. “I wandered lonely as a cloud.” – William Wordsworth

26. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” – Robert Frost

27. “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” – Dylan Thomas

28. “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” – John Keats

29. “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

30. “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” – Langston Hughes

31. “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” – William Shakespeare

32. “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” – W.B. Yeats

33. “Success is counted sweetest by those who ne’er succeed.” – Emily Dickinson

34. “A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.” – W.H. Auden

35. “The world is too much with us; late and soon.” – William Wordsworth

36. “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” – John Milton

37. “But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet.” – W.B. Yeats

38. “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.” – Bob Dylan

39. “I am a part of all that I have met.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson

40. “If I should meet thee after long years, how should I greet thee? With silence and tears.” – Lord Byron

41. “Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.” – Richard Lovelace

42. “The poetry of the earth is never dead.” – John Keats

43. “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul—and sings the tunes without the words—and never stops at all.” – Emily Dickinson

44. “My love is like a red, red rose that’s newly sprung in June.” – Robert Burns

45. “Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.” – Robert Frost

46. “If music be the food of love, play on.” – William Shakespeare

47. “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” – Winston Churchill

48. “Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” – W.B. Yeats

49. “Life, believe, is not a dream.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

50. “Time will pass, and seasons will come and go.” – Roy Bean

51. “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” – Robert Frost

52. “We loved with a love that was more than love.” – Edgar Allan Poe

And-still-I-rise.-Maya-Angelou

The Ultimate List of Master Poet Quotes

As we conclude our poetic journey, savor the final set of master poet quotes that capture the essence of human experience and emotion.

53. “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” – William Wordsworth

54. “What is now proved was once only imagined.” – William Blake

55. “A poet’s work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.” – Salman Rushdie

56. “Love is the poetry of the senses.” – Honoré de Balzac

57. “There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away.” – Emily Dickinson

58. “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” – Alexander Pope

59. “I have nothing to declare except my genius.” – Oscar Wilde

60. “The child is father of the man.” – William Wordsworth

61. “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” – Percy Bysshe Shelley

62. “Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.” – William Wordsworth

63. “The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.” – John Vance Cheney

64. “Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom.” – William Shakespeare

65. “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” – William Shakespeare

66. “Truth is beauty, beauty is truth.” – John Keats

67. “A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.” – Elbert Hubbard

68. “A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.” – John Barrymore

69. “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.” – John Keats

70. “A light exists in spring, not present on the year at any other period when March is scarcely here.” – Emily Dickinson

71. “Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it.” – Nicholas Sparks

Master Poet quotes

As we come to the end of this poetic journey, I hope these master poet quotes have touched your heart and stirred your soul as much as they have mine.

The timeless wisdom and beauty found in these verses remind us of the power of words and the depth of human experience. Keep these quotes close to your heart, and let them inspire you to see the beauty in the world and in yourself.

Until next time, keep reading, keep writing, and keep letting poetry light up your life.