What is Poetry?
Poetry is:
the achievement of the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits. (Carl Sandburg)
the best words in the best order. (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
the emotion of life rhythmically remembering beauty. (Fiona MacLeod)
the harmonious union of man with nature. (Thomas Carlyle)
imaginary gardens with real toads in them. (Marianne Moore)
the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. (Carl Sandburg)
the music of the soul, and above all of great and feeling souls. (Voltaire)
musical thought. (Thomas Carlyle)
the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds. (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
the rhythmical creation of beauty. (Edgar Allan Poe)
the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility. (William Wordsworth)
the supreme fiction. (Wallace Stevens)
verse: Prose is not verse. Or else poetry is everything with the exception of business documents and school books. (Leo Tolstoy)