A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit,
  
Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,
  
Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown--
  
A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.
  
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,
  
Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,
  
Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves.
Memory by memory the mind--
  
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.

A poem should be equal to:
Not true.
  
For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.
  
For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea--

A poem should not mean
But be.

Archibald McLeish