1. Truths universally acknowledged

Abstract

‘Truths universally acknowledged’ considers some of the ways poetry has been defined and regarded over the ages, and the various things that have been proposed as indispensable to it. A long-established argument is between two schools of belief about the nature of poetry and what it is for: whether its object is pleasure or something more practical. Formal definitions such as rhyme, metre, and kinds of language—verse as opposed to prose—are discussed before considering poetry’s connection to ritual and the importance of syntax in poetry in English. Poetics is particularly concerned with the way that poetry foregrounds the figurative and metaphorical activity in language.