William Shakespeare on Poetry
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“I was not born under a rhyming planet.”
“The elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poesy.”
“O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention.”
“Not marble, nor the gilded monuments Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme.”
“And, as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name.”
“I had rather be a kitten, and cry mew, Than one of these same metre ballet-mongers; I had rather hear a brazen canstick turn'd, Or a dry wheel grate on the axletree; And that would set my teeth nothing on edge, Nothing so much as mincing poetry: 'Tis like the forced gait of a shuffling nag.”