‘I spoke at the beginning about definitions. In conclusion, I would like to say that we make a very common mistake when we think we are ignorant of something because we are unable to define it. If we were in a Chestertonian mood (I think one of the best moods to be in), we would say that we can only define something when we don't know anything about it.

For example, if I have to define poetry and I'm not quite sure, if I don't feel too sure, I say something like: ‘poetry is the expression of beauty through words artfully woven together’. This definition might fit in a dictionary or a textbook, but it seems unconvincing to us. There is something much more important: something that would encourage us not only to keep trying poetry, but to enjoy it and to feel that we know everything about it.

This means that we know what poetry is. We know it so well that we cannot define it with other words, just as we are unable to define the taste of coffee, the colour red or yellow or the meaning of anger, love, hate, sunrise, sunset or love for our country. These things are so ingrained in us that they can only be expressed by those common symbols we share. And why should we need more words?

You may not agree with the examples I have chosen. Maybe tomorrow I will come up with better examples, maybe you will think I should have quoted other verses. But since you can choose your own examples, you don't have to worry too much about Homer, the Anglo-Saxon poets or Rossetti. Because everyone knows where to find poetry. And when it appears, one feels the touch of poetry, that special thrill.

Finally, I have a quote from St. Augustine that I think fits perfectly. St. Augustine said: ‘What is time. If you don't ask me what it is, I know. If you ask me what it is, I don't know’. I think the same thing about poetry.
 

Jorge Luis Borges, in Arte Poética (6 lectures)