Life would be very dull without poetry - and many early histories and myths
were written in the form of poetry. Poetry makes your soul sing, whether writing it or reading it....

"What is the use or function of poetry nowadays?"  is a question not the less
poignant for being defiantly asked by so many stupid people or apologetically answered by so many silly people. The function of poetry is religious invocation of the Muse; its use is the experience of mixed exaltation and horror that her presence excites.  Nowadays is a civilization in which the prime emblems of poetry are dishonored.  In which serpent, lion and eagle belong to the circus-tent; ox, salmon and boar to the cannery; racehorse and Greyhound to the betting ring; and the sacred grove to the saw-mill.

 In which the Moon is despised as a burned-out satellite of the Earth and woman reckoned as "auxiliary State personnel.  In which money will buy almost anything but truth, and almost anyone but the truth-possessed poet."

 

Robert Graves