The Truth of the Matter

"Poetry is never a pretty way of saying anything that might be said straight. It is unparaphrasable, or, insofar as it may be paraphrased, it is sold short. Is someone seriously going to contend that all great verse of the centuries which employs meter and rhyme would be far better paraphrased and digested? I don't think so. Verse is not decoration: it is structural. It is a forming principle and works at depths."

george szirtes
formal wear: notes on rhyme, meter, stanza & pattern