What was ts eliots definition of poetry?

“we must believe that ‘emotion recollected in tranquillity’ is an inexact formula. For

[poetry] is neither emotion, nor recollection, nor, without distortion of meaning,

tranquillity. It is a concentration, and a new thing resulting from the concentration, of a

very great number of experiences which to the practical and active person would not

seem to be experiences at all; it is a concentration which does not happen consciously or

of deliberation. These experiences are not ‘recollected,’ and they finally unite in an

atmosphere which is ‘tranquil’ only in that it is a passive attending upon the event. …

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the

expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who

have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.”