Faust, Part One

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Poetry is not simply a fashion of expression: it is the form of expression absolutely required by a certain class of ideas.

“The rhythm,” said Goethe, “is an unconscious result of the poetic mood. If one should stop to consider it mechanically, when about to write a poem, one would become bewildered and accomplish nothing of real poetical value.”—Ibid.

What I possess, I see far distant lying, And what I lost, grows real and undying.