~T.S. Eliot, 'The Social Function of Poetry'
Sunday, August 1, 2010
A Definition of Poetry (if that's even possible)
"[In poetry] there is always the communication of some new experience, or some fresh understanding of the familiar, or the expression of something we have experienced but have no words for, which enlarges our consciousness or refines our sensibility."
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Oh gosh. Did you ever get asked by Dr. McM "What is poetry?"
ReplyDeletehah. I don't really like T. S. Eliot. He might have a point here, though.
Hah, yes, we spent an enter class on it. That is one of those annoying, unanswerable questions he loves to ask us. :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying this book of his (a collection of essays called On Poetry and Poets) so far, but I must say that, as of right now, I do not understand his poetry at all.
Yep. ;-)
ReplyDeleteExcept in EngLit, a friend and I had this great answer for it (it was a quotation of Wordsworth, I think) and then he never asked the question! We were quite put out. ^_^