Samuel Johnson on Poetry
← Back to Samuel Johnson Profile
“Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason.”
“The essence of poetry is invention; such invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights.”
“The essence of poetry is invention; such invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights.”
“Sir, what is Poetry? Why, Sir, it is much easier to say what it is not. We all know what light is: but it is not easy to tell what it is.”
“Wheresoe'er I turn my view, All is strange, yet nothing new: Endless labor all along, Endless labor to be wrong: Phrase that Time has flung away; Uncouth words in disarray, Trick'd in antique ruff and bonnet, Ode, and elegy, and sonnet.”