By chance, I recently received an email asking me for "the most succinct
definition of poetry that you can come up with." Remembering a class in
Philosophy of Physics, where the tutor (Bill Newton-Smith if you're
interested) suggested that the only satisfactory definition of Physics
was "what physicists do", I came up with the following...
"Poetry is that which poets call poetry."
Of course, this begs the question of what a poet is, and so:
"A poet is one who is recognised as such by his/her peers."
Any definition of poetry involving functional or structural
characteristics falls down, because there are always counter-examples.
Regards,
--
Peter
http://www.hphoward.demon.co.uk/poetry/
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