Definitions of Poetry

The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings ~ Wordsworth

A poem should not mean but be ~ Archibald MacLeish

If I read it and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry ~ Emily Dickinson

Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing ~ Dylan Thomas

The only problem
with Haiku is that you just
get started and then
~Roger McGough

Beauty is truth. Truth, beauty.
That is all ye know on Earth and all ye need to know ~ Keats

Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason. ~Novalis

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them. ~ Charles Simic

Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand. ~ Plato

The poet doesn't invent. He listens. ~Jean Cocteau

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words. ~Robert Frost

Breathe-in experience, breathe-out poetry. ~Muriel Rukeyser

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth. ~Jean Cocteau

Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words. ~Edgar Allan Poe

Textbook definition: Emotionally evocative literature that makes meaning with particular attention to rhythm, connotation, symbol and/or form.