Lord Dunsany on the poets's function

Photo of the Lord Dunsany portrait
(painted by Alfred Jonniaux) in
Dunsany Castle, County Meath, Ireland
© 2009 Jason Sturner

"For what is it to be a poet? It is to see at a glance the glory of the world, to see beauty in all its forms and manifestations, to feel ugliness like a pain, to resent the wrongs of others as bitterly as ones own, to know mankind as others know single men, to know Nature as botanists know a flower, to be thought a fool, to hear at moments the clear voice of God."

-- Lord Dunsany