I was reading the Oxford Companion to Philosophy pool-side this weekend and came across this cool, condensed description of poetry ...
Distinctive of poetry at its best is an 'all-in', maximally dense, simultaneous deployment of linguistic recourses- sound and rhythm as well as sense, the bringing-together of numerous strands of meaning, through metaphors and other figures, through ambiguities (often unresolved), controlled associations and recourses, allusions: all of these contributing to a well-integrated, unified effect.
This companion to philosophy is one of the best books I've read pertaining to that field (the best one of all times, however, and one I adamantly encourage everyone to read, is Bertrand Russell's History Western Philosophy).
Distinctive of poetry at its best is an 'all-in', maximally dense, simultaneous deployment of linguistic recourses- sound and rhythm as well as sense, the bringing-together of numerous strands of meaning, through metaphors and other figures, through ambiguities (often unresolved), controlled associations and recourses, allusions: all of these contributing to a well-integrated, unified effect.
This companion to philosophy is one of the best books I've read pertaining to that field (the best one of all times, however, and one I adamantly encourage everyone to read, is Bertrand Russell's History Western Philosophy).
