Poetry, Pleasure, Nonsense

One of the primary goals of poetry, Coleridge said, was to give pleasure. Sadly, most of us have lost sight of this feature of verse, and we tend to associate poetry with difficulty. In this talk, I introduce poetry as first and foremost pleasing sound. I argue that poems can "mean" before they "Mean." Meaning: the simple joy of certain sounds is the most immediate power of verse.

[@gweno9901]

Thank you. From now on I will approach poems with an expectation of enjoying them! I have always tended to focus on trying (and often failing!) to understand poetry.