Quote#Poetry
The poet's business is not to save the soul of man but to make it…
Quote byJames Elroy Flecker · 1884–1915
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Quoted in Louis Untermeyer, Modern British Poetry (Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920).
English (original)
The poet's business is not to save the soul of man but to make it worth saving.
— James Elroy Flecker
More from James Elroy Flecker
We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage: And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, We Poets of the proud old lineage Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why.
When even lovers find their peace at last, And Earth is but a star, that once had shone.
West of these out to seas colder than the Hebrides I must go Where the fleet of stars is anchored and the young Star captains glow.
O friend unseen, unborn, unknown, Student of our sweet English tongue, Read out my words at night, alone: I was a poet, I was young.
I care not if you bridge the seas, Or ride secure the cruel sky, Or build consummate palaces Of metal or of masonry. But have you wine and music still, And statues and a bright-eyed love,
When the great markets by the sea shut fast All that calm Sunday that goes on and on: When even lovers find their peace at last, And Earth is but a star, that once had shone.