You Mean That People Who Continue Virtuous

If I Thought That Any Poem Of Mine Could Have Been Written By Anyone Else, Either A Contemporary Or A Forerunner, I Should Suppress It With A Blush; And I Should Do The Same If I Ever Found I Were Imitating Myself. Every Poem Should Be New, Unexpected, Inimitable, And Incapable Of Being Parodied.

But That So Many Scholars Are Barbarians Does Not Much Matter So Long As A Few Of Them Are Ready To Help With Their Specialized Knowledge The Few Independent Thinkers, That Is To Say The Poets, Who Try To To Keep Civilization Alive.

No Poem Is Worth Anything Unless It Starts From A Poetic Trance, Out Of Which You Can Be Wakened By Interruption As From A Dream. In Fact, It Is The Same Thing.

Philosophy Is Antipoetic. Philosophize About Mankind And You Brush Aside Individual Uniqueness, Which A Poet Cannot Do Without Self-damage. Unless, For A Start, He Has A Strong Personal Rhythm To Vary His Metrics, He Is Nothing. Poets Mistrust Philosophy. They Know That Once The Heads Are Counted, Each Owner Of A Head Loses His Personal Identify And Becomes A Number In Some Government Scheme: If Not As A Slave Or Serf, At Least As A Party To The Device Of Majority Voting, Which Smothers Personal Views.

There Is No Such Thing As Good Writing, Only Good Rewriting.