History Coming too close Is monstrous, like a doll That is alive and bigger than the child Who tries to hold it.

- Babette Deutsch

Who, except the poets, reads poetry?

- Babette Deutsch

There is no end to grief. Nor no end to poetry.

- Babette Deutsch

Music proposes. Sound disposes.

- Babette Deutsch

The difference between Pound and Whitman is not between the democrat who in deep distress could look hopefully toward the future and the fascist madl…

- Babette Deutsch

The poet who speaks out of the deepest instincts of man will be heard. The poet who creates a myth beyond the power of man to realize is gagged at th…

- Babette Deutsch

The poet, like the lover, is a person unable to reconcile what he knows with what he feels. His peculiarity is that he is under a certain compulsion …

- Babette Deutsch

Poetry is important. No less than science, it seeks a hold upon reality, and the closeness of its approach is the test of its success.

- Babette Deutsch

How to sustain the miracle Of being, that like a muted bell, Or like some ocean-breathing shell, Quivers, intense and still?

- Babette Deutsch