Why Poetry?

Here is one reason, given by Walter Savage Landor (1775 – 1864):

Past ruin’d Ilion Helen lives,

    Alcestis rises from the shades;

Verse calls them forth; ’tis verse that gives

    Immortal youth to mortal maids.

And in a line and a half, Landor gives us all of Keats.

(The last remark is tongue-in-cheek. By all means, read all of Keats!)