Poets articulate and explore the mystery of daily life in the context of the human struggle for meaning, purpose, and value. The writer’s voice, style, and symbols inform the themes of the work. A great poem is a work of art that affects many generations of readers, changes lives, challenges assumptions, and breaks new ground.
Robinson Jeffers once said: “Poetry has been regarded as a refuge from life, where dreams may heal the wounds of reality; and as an ornament of life; and as a diversion, mere troubadour amusement; and poetry has been in fact refuge and ornament and diversion, but poetry in its higher condition is none of these; not a refuge but an intensification, not an ornament but essential, not a diversion but an incitement …”