In the eyes of others a man is a poet if he has written....

“ In the eyes of others a man is a poet if he has written one good poem. In his own he is only a poet at the moment when he is making his last revision to a new poem. The moment before, he was still only a potential poet; the moment after, he is a man who has ceased to write poetry, perhaps forever. ”

W.H. Auden

From : The Dyer's Hand