It is almost impossible to define poetry. William Wordsworth in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads wrote, ‘poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility: the emotion is contemplated till, by a species of reaction, the tranquility gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind’.
Or as Robert Frost wote, “A poem begins with a lump in the throat, a home-sickness or a love-sickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where the emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the words.”A poem can be as clear and simple as a nursery rhyme or as complex as a Shakespearian soliloquy. Poetry is a living art form, constantly changing and growing, reflecting the thoughts and hopes of those who write it, those who read it and those who poetry speaks to and about.

A great poem is more than a clever turn of phrase or well-conceived rhymes. It is the burning ember forming a primeval campfire, the white-hot heat of a nuclear explosion, the soft caress of an old love. It is a sliver of truth from the tree of life embedding itself in your heart.

Generation Cobweb wants to share some of the great poems we have read and our feelings about them. If you would like to share your reading experience with us please visit The Atrium and join in.

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