For while the subjects of poetry are few and recurrent, the moods of man are infinitely various and unstable. It is the same in all arts.

If it is an imperfect word, no external circumstance can heighten its value as poetry.

It should here be added that poetry habitually takes the form of verse.

But in the finished art of the song the use of words has no connection with the use of words in poetry.

When the poet makes his perfect selection of a word, he is endowing the word with life.

The poet's perfect expression is the token of a perfect experience; what he says in the best possible way he has felt in the best possible way, that is, completely.

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.