My role in society – or any artist or poet’s role – is to try to express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel, not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.
I think the term “poet” is a very exalted term and should be applied to a man at the end of his work. When he looks back over the body of his work and he’s written poetry then let the verdict be that he’s a poet.
I had the title ‘poet,’ and maybe I was one for a while. Also, the title ‘singer’ was kindly accorded me, even though I could barely carry a tune.
But are not the dreams of poets and the tales of travellers notoriously false?
As a science of the unconscious it is a therapeutic method, in the grand style, a method overarching the individual case. Call this, if you choose, a poet’s utopia.
A poet can survive everything but a misprint.
A great poet belongs to no country, his works are public property, and his Memoirs the inheritance of the public.
