Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
All great poets inevitably become critics.
In plain terms
Great poets turn into critics by nature.
What can you take from it?
Expect artistic growth to include critique.

Where it applies

  • literary circles
  • art reviews

Putting it to work

  • writing critical essays

Questions to consider

  • Why does critique follow creation?
  • Is criticism essential to art?

Another view

Not all poets engage in criticism.

More from Charles Baudelaire

  1. Il y a dans le mot, dans le verbe , quelque chose de sacre qui nous defend d'en faire un jeu de hasard. Manier savamment une langue, c'est pratiquer une espece…

    Permalink to quote #61
  2. La Revolution a ete faite par des voluptueux.

    Permalink to quote #63
  3. C'est a la fois par la poesie et a travers la poesie, par et a travers la musique, que l'ame entrevoit les splendeurs situees derriere le tombeau; et, quand un…

    Permalink to quote #60

Related quotes

  1. The poetical tendency of the present and of the preceding century has been divided in a manner singularly curious. One loud and conspicuous faction of bards, g…

    H. P. LovecraftH. P. Lovecraft quote #1
  2. On peut citer de mauvais vers, quand ils sont d'un grand poete.

    Pierre Choderlos de LaclosPierre Choderlos de Laclos quote #2
  3. The poet:who is the legislator of generations and the moral instructor of the world.

    William GodwinWilliam Godwin quote #2