Ralph Waldo Emerson

Essays

Poetry and Imagination [1872]

Poetry will never be a simple means, as when history or philosophy is rhymed, or laureate odes on state occasions are written. Itself must be its own end, or it is nothing. The difference between poetry and stock poetry is this, that in the latter the rhythm is given and the sense adapted to it; while in the former the sense dictates the rhythm. I might even say that the rhyme is there in the theme, thought and image themselves.

I was struck by this paragraph. How timely and powerful it still is.

To me it says the form of a poem must be authentic. That if you write about things you are passionate about, the techniques of the poem will be revealed through what you have to say.

I do find creativity in the different forms of poetry. That a pattern and the rules of a specific type of poem make you choose the right exact word. Sometimes, the rules make you expand an image. Most of the time, it requires you to be succinct.

But for a poem to be powerful, it should be an expression of something you have to say. How you say it is revealed in the editing of it.