In what sense and how far is the genius master of his madness?
             For it goes without saying that to a certain degree he is master
             of it, since otherwise he would be actually a madman. For such
             observations, however, ingenuity in a high degree is requisite,
             and love; for to make observation upon a superior mind is very difficult.
             --Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
             Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.
             Poetry is not inspiration. Poetry is neither reasonable, irrational, or a result of some sort of mania. Poetry is language through which the writer affects and as a result the reader is affected. Within this, one finds a cause and effect relationship. Plato, in Ion, refers to the poet as, "a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of this senses, and reason is longer in him". In contrast, Aristotle contends that, "poetry implies either a happy gift of nature or a strain of madness. In one case a man can take the mould of any character; in the other, he is lifted out of his proper self" (Poetics, XVII. 2). Longinus adds that, "Truly beautiful words are the very light of thought" (On The Sublime, XXX. 63), and "literary composition...sets in motion manifold ideas of words, thoughts, actions, beauty, and melody, all of them produced and nourished within us...the emotion of the speaker is introduced into the spirits of those who listen and...at once charm us and dispose us for the majestic...But it appears madness to raise a question on matters thus agreed on, for experience seems a sufficient test" (On The Sublime, XXXIX. 83). Reason and madness in poetry are relative to the listener. I will examine the responses of Plato, Aristotle, and Longinus to poetry and its relation to reason and the irrational. In addition, I will relate some of my own views on the topic.
             Plato takes a very strong position against poetry. He deprecates the worth of poets to ...