What is Poetry?Answers from an array of authors

What is Poetry?

The achievement of the synthesis of

hyacinths and biscuits.

--Carl Sandburg

?????

What is Poetry?

The best words in

the best order.

-Samuel Taylor

Coleridge

Good Mr. STC, is that

so terribly very

different from prose?

Yes, I suppose it is

If poetry is not about meaning,

then...

Poetry," says Fiona MacLeod, "is the

emotion of life rhythmically remembering

beauty: as pictorial art and the art of verbal

romance are the vision of life seen in beauty.

… Its first and main concern is with beauty.

What is Poetry?

● The rhythmical creation of beauty

--Edgar Allan Poe

● The record of the best and happiest

moments of the happiest and best minds.

--Percy Bysshe Shelley

What is Poetry?

● The music of the soul, and above all of great

and feeling souls. --Voltaire

● Imaginary gardens with real toads in them.

--Marianne Moore

Two more, both important

Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful

feelings recollected in tranquility.

--William Wordsworth

Poetry is the supreme fiction.

--Wallace Stevens

Prose / poetry: clear?

Poetry / prose: clear?

Poetry / verse: clear?

And so … there are limits!

Prose is not verse. Or

else poetry is

everything with the

exception of business

documents and school

books. -Tolstoy