… Most people understand that there is a difference between poetry and prose – but they have struggled for centuries, from Aristotle to the present day, to say exactly what it is.

Nobody has succeeded …

The truth is that poetry – writing it or reading it – is always a mixture of originality and tradition, of inspiration and sheer hard work.

As Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, 

“No wonder of it. Sheer plod makes plough down sillion Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.” 

There are no easy answers, and no short cuts …