Poetry

Unsere Sprache ist entweder mechanisch, atomistisch, oder dynamisch. Die echt poetische Sprache soll aber organisch, lebendig sein. Wie oft fühlt man die Armut an Worten, um mehre Ideen mit Einem Schlage zu treffen.                                                                 

Our language is either mechanical, atomistic, or dynamic. But truly poetic language should be organic, alive. How often does one feel the poverty of a words’ ability to express several ideas at once.

                                                                                              --Novalis, Blütenstaub

 

Here lies the difference between nature and everyday language. Nature is all simultaneity. But everyday language uses lists, plots, beginnings and endings. Poetry must express itself in the manner of nature, implying the interconnectedness of all things, all stories, the visible and the invisible. Things are often metaphors for other things, ideas often metaphors for other ideas, the visible for the invisible, but the connection may not be obvious until it is revealed by poetic language, which (as in the Song of Songs, for example) can even express the transcendent.