The Best poems aren’t ones in which
The poet gives form to a theory or truth—
But the ones in which the Poet’s Temperament,
Their capacity for Love, their Sincerity—find expression.²
The Poets’ task is clarify for themselves, and thus
For others, the Temporal & Eternal questions.³
True Poetry does not pretend to be poetry:
It is in the dogged drafts of a few Maniacs—
Seeking the New Encounter!⁴
Poetry is a Gnomic utterance
From which the Soul springs, Fluttering.⁵
On all the shores of the world: a Fiercer
Iambic verse—to be Fed from our Being!⁶
Symphonies rise, a Glory out of darkness, and the poets,
The Crazy Poets, cry out: “A Terrible Beauty is born—”⁷
Things Vanish into the shadows of
Each other and of themselves, but
With the Reflections of these shadows—
Poems return to Light!⁸
Poetry is not a luxury: it is of
Vital necessity to our Existence.⁹
Brave Poets, keep back nothing—
Look Godward—speak truth in worthy song
From earnest Soul—hold, in high poetic duty:
The truest Truth, the fairest Beauty!¹⁰
¹ Pablo Neruda tr. Alastair Reid, Poetry
² Hermann Hesse tr. Richard & Clara Winston, Magister Ludi
³ Ibsen, quoted by Denise Levertov in Three Meditations
⁴ Francis Ponge tr. Beth Archer, The Silent World Is Our Only Homeland
⁵ Joyce Carol Oates, Poetry Is the Gnomic Utterance
⁶ Saint-John Perse tr. Denis Devlin, Exile
⁷ Ursula K. Le Guin quoting Yeats, Paradises Lost
⁸ Inger Christenson tr. Susanna Nied, Silk, the Universe, Language, the Heart
⁹ Audre Lorde, Poetry Is Not a Luxury
¹⁰ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Dead Pan