Great Regulars: There is a whole series

of converging reasons why it is somewhat easier for a poet than a prose writer to feel at home in an authoritarian society. To begin with, bureaucrats and other "practical" men usually despise the poet too deeply to be much interested in what he is saying. Secondly, what the poet is saying--that is, what his poem "means" if translated into prose--is relatively unimportant, even to himself.

from Daily Times: Purple Patch: Prevention of literature --George Orwell

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