Literature of Ecstasy

This is not a book to teach the writing of poetry, but a study of the poetic faculty in literature, not in rhetorical terms, but by an appeal to the emotional life of the reader. It aims to point out the best examples of the literature of ecstasy (or poetry) whether in verse or prose. It shows that poetry is the very life of man’s soul, that he has always loved it, that he has in lieu of gratification of a good and true poetic faculty often spent himself in cultivating substitutes for it. What a superficial assumption that because people do not like verse or read verse (especially trivial, lifeless, inhuman verse) they therefore do not care for poetry I Furthermore, I try to relate the poet’s own literary revelation back to himself, just as the poet sought to reveal his soul to the reader.