The Purpose of Poetry

[rayheinrich]

Poetry is ordering words according to aesthetic constraints.

The aesthetic constraints are quite obvious
(as Leanne, ever eloquent, has stated previously*).

Our task, hard though it may be, is to determine the order:
Does bestiality come before or after hairy armpits?

ray

There are two separate purposes, one for the reader and one for the writer.

The purpose of reading poetry is to entertain, to enlighten, to expand the mind,
and gain perspective. Different people, different tastes, different poems will have
different effects, therefore there are multiple purposes.

*The sole purpose of writing poetry is to learn to do it well enough that you can
have an entire conversation in sonnets about hairy armpits and bestiality.