The Poet's Perfect Expression Is The Token

The Musician - If He Be A Good One - Finds His Own Perception Prompted By The Poet's Perception, And He Translates The Expression Of That Perception From The Terms Of Poetry Into The Terms Of Music.

But In The Finished Art Of The Song The Use Of Words Has No Connection With The Use Of Words In Poetry.

We Recognise In The Finished Art, Which Is The Result Of These Conditions, The Best Words In The Best Order - Poetry; And To Put This Essential Poetry Into Different Classes Is Impossible.

A Lyric, It Is True, Is The Expression Of Personal Emotion, But Then So Is All Poetry, And To Suppose That There Are Several Kinds Of Poetry, Differing From Each Other In Essence, Is To Be Deceived By Wholly Artificial Divisions Which Have No Real Being.

To Know Anything Of A Poet But His Poetry Is, So Far As The Poetry Is Concerned, To Know Something That May Be Entertaining, Even Delightful, But Is Certainly Inessential.