Poetry is plucking at the heartstrings, and making music with them.

Poetry is plucking at the heartstrings, and making music with them.

Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words.

Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words.

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.

A poem conveys not a message so much as the provenance of a message, an advent of sense.

A poem conveys not a message so much as the provenance of a message, an advent of sense.

The essentials of poetry are rhythm, dance, and the human voice.

The essentials of poetry are rhythm, dance, and the human voice.

For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a
poem.

For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a
poem.

Made poetry a mere mechanic art.

Made poetry a mere mechanic art.

Doeg, though without knowing how or why,
Made a still a blundering kind of melody;
Spurr'd boldly read more

Doeg, though without knowing how or why,
Made a still a blundering kind of melody;
Spurr'd boldly on, and dash'd through thick and thin,
Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in;
Free from all meaning whether good or bad,
And in one word, heroically mad.

Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.

Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.