But what we experience as readers is never exactly what the poet experienced, nor would there be any point in its being, though certainly it has some relation to the poet’s experience. What the poet experienced is not poetry but poetic material; the writing of the poetry is a fresh “experience” for him, and the reading of it, by the author or by anyone else, is another thing still.
T. S. Eliot, The Use of Poetry & The Use of Criticism.
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