2.3 Quality of poetry
Whether a poem is of poor, medium or high quality in literary terms depends very much on how well the poet has the ability to explore more than one level of meaning and more than one idea in the content of the poem. How well the poet has enhanced the communication of feeling in the poem through rhythm and selective verbal usage with its power of suggestion is equally important. Lastly, the accuracy with which the poet has communicated the tone, mood and atmosphere is the criterion by which quality is finally judged.
A good poet brings a freshness of perception to the work, striking images, economy of language woven in with rhythms appropriate to the theme. There is a universality in the meaning and message. The same ideas may recur again and again in poetry but the poet's ability to re-present "what oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed" (Pope, 1711) in a way that captures afresh the attention and imagination of the reader singles out that poet's ability to communicate through his/her medium. So good poetry is that poetry which can capture the inner person connecting with and touching that person at more than surface level. Its economy of language usage combined with rhythm and its power to evoke feelings which capture the core of life experience are at its heart.