What Is Poetry?

James Dickey said this:
'What you have to realize when you write poetry or if you love poetry, is that poetry is just naturally the greatest thing that ever was in the whole universe.'
I whole heartedly agree with James' feelings.
Robert Lovell said this regarding poetry,
You can say anything in a poem if you place it properly. '
1. A poem needs some order without feeling it has order it doesn't want to feel like the life has been squeezed out of it nor like its all chaotic emotion stamped across it. Some structure that is the rhythm, stanza , metre in poems of traditional verse give emotional space thus the reader wont be bombarded by emotion.
2. In modern poetry which is about a slice of life the goal of the writer is to find a form which will take that piece of life and make it real to the reader.
3. Style or form of a poem is a tool its not what makes a poem successful.
4. Vocabulary is important in poetry a wide range of words helps to bring colour, beauty, ad originality to a poem.
5. Hard work lots of drafts refining the poem cutting it down to the least words to say what the poet wants it to say. Working on use of punctuation in right places so it can bring correct meaning, meaning to a poets work . I
heard once that Wordsworth the famous poet was heard to have said ,
“He had done a great days work as he had found the right place for a comma in one of his poems.
6. ' Reading other poets works, glean what is good from their work and making it yours if its possible.
Poetry is an art form I believe personally the highest art form of writing and requires the greatest expression coming from deep within the poet and skill to convey that.
In conclusion,
What is poetry is summed up by,
William Wordsworth in the introduction to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads in 1802:
' POETRY IS THE SPONTANEOUS OUTFLOW OF POWERFUL FEELING; IT TAKES ITS ORIGINS FROM EMOTION RECOLLECTED IN TRANQUILITY.'