What Do You Have To Say? Poetry’s Eternal Question

A poem shapes words in such a way that they say something about something. Poets put their words together in many different ways from culture to culture. The choice of words, rhyme, free verse, etc., and many other aspects of composition comprise the poet's art of rhetoric. It is not the purpose here to pursue an extensive discussion of the characteristics of poetic rhetoric, but rather to emphasize that poetry possesses many characteristics through which it conveys meaning. Therefore, the choic