Art Quote by Roman Jakobson

The function of poetry is to point out that the sign is not identical to the referent.

— Roman Jakobson

The poem is a structure of signifiers which absorbs and reconstitutes the signified.

— Jonathan Culler

Contemporary poetry ... tries to transform the sign back into meaning: its ideal, ultimately, would be to reach not the meaning of words, but…

— Roland Barthes

A poem employs both the sound and the sense of language, it treats words not just as signifiers but as a plastic medium of…

— Campbell McGrath

Poetic language features an iconic rather than a predominantly conventional relationship of form and content in which all language (and cultural) elements, variant as…

— Yuri Lotman

What's the function of poetry? It's to express general truths, to connect with the reader and make him think: 'Wow, I've experienced that, but…

— Giles Andreae

Poetry springs directly from our primal need and capacity for communication[Poetry] mobilizes such a concentration of devices, such an intensification of language via rhythm,…

— Sven Birkerts

The great function of poetry is to give back to us the situations of our dreams.

— Gaston Bachelard

Poetry, at all times, exercises two distinct functions: it may reveal, it may unveil to every eye, the ideal aspects of common thingsor it…

— Walter Pater

The function of poetry is religious invocation of the muse; its use is the experience of mixed exaltation and horror that her presence excites.

— Robert Graves

And what is the very essence of poetry if it is not this 'metaphorical language'-this marking of the before unapprehended relations of things?

— Owen Barfield

A poem conveys not a message so much as the provenance of a message, an advent of sense.

— Thomas Harrison