title: Poetry, Language, Thought
author:  Martin Heidegger 
description: "A first-rate introduction. . . [a] very valuable collection." -- <i><I>--Review of Metaphysics</I></i>
zlib_text: Illusion and Reality, Christopher Caudwell 1937
  
   **INTRODUCTION**
  
  This is a book not only about poetry but also about the sources of poetry.
  Poetry is written in language and therefore it is a book about the sources of
  languages. Language is a social product, the instrument whereby men
  communicate and persuade each other; thus the study of poetry’s sources cannot
  be separated from the study of society.
  
  It is a common assumption of literary criticism that the sources of literature
  are irrelevant or unimportant, and that literature can be completely
  criticised in terms of literature. There was for some time a similar
  philosophy about the study of nature – the mechanical materialism of
  d'Holbach, adopted unconsciously by most scientists to-day. It was supposed
  that matter could be completely described in terms of itself, and since man is
  made of matter, these terms would describe him also. This philosophy began by
  divesting matter of all those qualities which have a subjective or menta