There is a great difference, whether the poet seeks the particular for the sake of the general or sees the general in the particular. From the former procedure there ensues allegory, in which the particular serves only as illustration, as example of the general. The latter procedure, however, is genuinely the nature of poetry; it expresses something particular, without thinking of the general or pointing to it.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheBeware of wishing for anything in youth, because you will get it in middle age.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheAll lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe