In its origin a poem is something completely unequivocal. It is a discharge,
a call, a cry, a sigh, a gesture, a reaction by which the living soul seeks to defend
itself from or to become aware of an emotion, an experience. In this first
spontaneous most important function no poem can be judged. It speaks first of
all simply to the poet himself, it is his cry, his scream, his dream, his smile, his
whirling fists.
Hermann Hesse
