What is poetry?

The oxford dictionary states that poetry is "Art or work of a poet; elevated expression of elevated thought or feeling in metrical or rhythmical form."

But what must also not be forgotten, it the techniques used in creating poems, poetry is language working at its most suggestive and allusive, in that it uses mainly the non-literal qualities of language; the quality and feel of different types of diction, sound, rythm, and the images and connotations that cluster around words. Above all it combines them in such a way as to bring out all those qualities at thier most intense.

Below i have included some of my favourite definitions of "poetry" found in literature:

• "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility" William Wordsworth
  
• "Poetry is the sound of human speech in those times when it comes closest to the speech of angels and the speach of animals" John Wain
  
• "Poetry: the best words in the best order" Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  
• "Poetry strips the veil of familiarity from the world, and lays bare the naked and sleeping beauty, which is the spirit of its forms"

I dont know who the above quote is from, but they must have felt very passionatly about poetry and its effects!