The Poet's Task

 THE POET'S TASK 

by Rick Doble

 The poet's task 

 is to fill 

 the emptiness 

 of words 

 with the richness 

 of the world 

Drawing of Rimbaud by Verlaine  (commons.wikimedia.org)

 SAILING TO BYZANTIUM 

 Example of a poet filling his words with the richness of the world 

 W. B. Yeats 

That is no country for old men. The young

In one another’s arms, birds in the trees

— Those dying generations — at their song,

The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,

Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long

Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.

Caught in that sensual music all neglect

Monuments of unageing intellect.

Verlaine & Rimbaud (far left)

belonged to a group known as Les Poètes Maudits 

(The Cursed Poets or The Outsider Poets) 

which is also the title of  a work by Verlaine (commons.wikimedia.org)

 I'm now making myself as scummy as I can. Why? I want to be a poet, and I'm working at turning myself into a seer. You won't understand any of this, and I'm almost incapable of explaining it to you. The idea is to reach the unknown by the derangement of all the senses. It involves enormous suffering, but one must be strong and be a born poet. It's really not my fault. 

Arthur Rimbaud, 1871, age 16