Samuel Taylor Coleridge Prose Quotations

Poetry: the best words in the best order.

The words in prose ought to express the intended meaning, and no more; if they attract attention to themselves, it is, in general, a fault.

Poetry is not the proper antithesis to prose, but to science. Poetry is opposed to science, and prose to meter. The proper and immediate object of science is the acquirement, or communication of truth; the proper and immediate object of poetry is the communication of immediate pleasure.

I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose = words in their best order; - poetry = the best words in the best order.