“Pain is filtered in a poem so that it becomes finally, in the end, pleasure.”
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And yet, in a culture like ours, which is given to material comforts, and addicted to forms of entertainment that offer immediate gratification, it is surprising that so much poetry is written.
Poetry is, first and last, language - the rest is filler.
I believe that all poetry is formal in that it exists within limits, limits that are either inherited by tradition or limits that language itself imposes.
I would say that American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony.
