Poetry is many different things to many different people. As you'll see from the below quotations; everyone, no matter how great, has a different opinion about poetry: (Poetry is) "a kind of ingenious nonsense." Isaac Newton. "Poetry is what gets lost in translation." Robert Frost. "Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting with the gift of speech." Simonides. "Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn." - Thomas Gray. "Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth." - Samuel Johnson. "Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words." - Edgar Allan Poe. "Poetry: the best words in the best order." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge. "A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape of the universe, helps to extend everyone's knowledge of himself and the world around him." - Dylan Thomas.
By really looking at these quotes in detail, you could go as far to say that poetry can be defined by its unwillingness to be labeled. It is what each reader makes of it (just like art), nothing more and nothing less.
Let's put content aside for one moment and see if there is anything we can decipher poetry by. We do have language of course: all poets consider their use of words and the order in which they write them. They really think about their emotive qualities, their musical value and their spacing, not to mention their actual spacial-awareness on the page itself.
Another defining factor of poetry (perhaps the only other one I can really add) is purpose. Once again, all poetry has an underlying purpose that goes much deeper than the literal. Poetry is always seeking to be evocative, to stir some sort of emotion within us, whether that is joy, sorrow, anger or even love.
So, there we have our conclusion, poetry is simply a composition designed to convey emotions, ideas or experiences in an imaginative and vivid way, characterized by the use of language chosen and the underlying purpose behind it.
A great place to go and explore your poetic prowess is Home House of Portman Square. Come and share your passion for words over wine and canaps in the candlelit and perfumed surroundings of our atmospheric Music Room, where such events have taken place since the 1770s.
By really looking at these quotes in detail, you could go as far to say that poetry can be defined by its unwillingness to be labeled. It is what each reader makes of it (just like art), nothing more and nothing less.
Let's put content aside for one moment and see if there is anything we can decipher poetry by. We do have language of course: all poets consider their use of words and the order in which they write them. They really think about their emotive qualities, their musical value and their spacing, not to mention their actual spacial-awareness on the page itself.
Another defining factor of poetry (perhaps the only other one I can really add) is purpose. Once again, all poetry has an underlying purpose that goes much deeper than the literal. Poetry is always seeking to be evocative, to stir some sort of emotion within us, whether that is joy, sorrow, anger or even love.
So, there we have our conclusion, poetry is simply a composition designed to convey emotions, ideas or experiences in an imaginative and vivid way, characterized by the use of language chosen and the underlying purpose behind it.
A great place to go and explore your poetic prowess is Home House of Portman Square. Come and share your passion for words over wine and canaps in the candlelit and perfumed surroundings of our atmospheric Music Room, where such events have taken place since the 1770s.
About the Author:
Home House is a private members club for people from all walks of life, which is part of its uniqueness. Quite unlike many other private members clubs in Mayfair, Home House is a place to enjoy leisure time or the perfect spot for a working day. Home House hosts London's most exclusive poetry evenings in London.
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