1. DEFINITION OF POET IF Innocence
POETRY
DEFINITION OF POET IF
Innocence

2. William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
What is a Poet? To whom does he address himself, and what language is to be expected from him?—He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind;

3. Definition of Poet
a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the goings-on of the universe, and habitually impelled to create them where he does not find them. To these qualities he has added a disposition to be affected more than other men by absent things as if they were present; an ability of conjuring up in himself passions, which are indeed far from being the same as those produced by real events

4. Definition of Poet
yet (especially in those parts of the general sympathy which are pleasing and delightful) do more nearly resemble the passions produced by real events, than anything which, from the motions of their own minds merely, other men are accustomed to feel in themselves:

5. Definition of Poetry
:— whence, and from practice, he has acquired a greater readiness and power in expressing what he thinks and feels, and especially those thoughts and feelings which, by his own choice, or from the structure of his own mind, arise in him without immediate external excitement.

6. Definition of Poetry
The Poet writes under one restriction only, namely, the necessity of giving immediate pleasure to a human being possessed of that information which may be expected from him, not as a lawyer, a physician, a mariner, an astronomer, or a natural philosopher, but as a man. Except this one restriction, there is no object standing between the Poet and the image of things; between this, and the Biographer and Historian, there are a thousand.

7. Definition of Poet
Nor let this necessity of producing immediate pleasure be considered as a degradation of the Poet’s art. It is far otherwise. It is an acknowledgement of the beauty of the universe, an acknowledgement the more sincere, because not formal, but indirect; it is a task light and easy to him who looks at the world in the spirit of love: further, it is a homage paid to the native and naked dignity of man, to the grand elementary principle of pleasure, by which he knows, and feels, and lives, and moves

8. IF
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you But make allowance for their doubting too, If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

9. IF
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master, If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

10. IF
If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

11. IF
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much, If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

12. Innocence by Thom Gunn He ran the course and as he ran he grew,
And smelt the fragrance in the field. Already,
Running he knew the most he ever knew,
The egotism of a healthy body.

13. Innocence Ran into manhood, ignorant of the past
Culture of guilt and guilt’s vague heritage,
Self-pity and the soul; what he possessed
Was rich, potential, like the bud’s tipped rage.

14. Innoncence
The Corps developed, it was plain to see, Courage, endurance, loyalty and skill To a morale firm as morality, Hardening him to an instrument, until

15. Innoncence
The finitude of virtues that were there Bodied within the swarthy uniform A compact innocence, child-like and clear, No doubt could penetrate, no act could harm.

16. Innoncence
When he stood near the Russian partisan Being burned alive, he therefore could behold The ribs wear gently through the darkening skin And sicken only at the Northern cold, Could watch the fat burn with a violent flame And feel disgusted only at the smell, And judge that all pain finishes the same As melting quietly by his boots it fell.

17. Bear on a Scale by Chase Twichell
Even dead,
Her weight resists the rope harness---
She is not a pet, not a slave
Although he knows the bear is female,
The man still calls her it or him
Two hundred twenty pounds,
Turning slowly in the air,
They weigh about the same.
His fingers ruffle the lustrous pelt,
True black but for the long black muzzle,
Even dead,
Her weight resists the rope harness---
She is not a pet, not a slave

18. And over the small eyes clouded with refusal,
Two faint brown eyebrows
Bears have been known to climb
Utility poles for the bee-buzz in the lines
But she won’t sniff the human trees
Or cut her four-claw mark
On the beeches anymore

19. Bear on a Scale Or gouge from the oak its stinging honeycomb.
On Shelves behind the man and animal;
Paint cans, car wax, caulking gun.
They’re in a garage. The floor is cement.
He’ll have to get down on all fours
To scrub away the dark spattering
After he cuts her down,

20. Bear on a Scale Or maybe he’ll leave it there beneath the scale
For no reason he can think of.