“Poetry operates by hints and dark suggestions. It is full of secrets and hidden formulae, like a witch's brew.”
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There's not a good poet I know who has not at the beck and call of his memory a vast quantity of poetry that composes his mental library.
A lot of the fun lies in trying to penetrate the mystery and this is best done by saying over the lines to yourself again and again, till they pass through the stage of sounding like nonsense, and finally return to a full sense that had at first escaped notice.
The first function of poetry is to tell the truth, to learn how to do that, to find out what you really feel and what you really think.
Even the people who have had success and made money writing these books of fiction seem to feel the need to pretend it's no big deal, or part of a natural progression from poetry to fiction, but often it's really just about the money, the perceived prestige.