Poetry, like any other literary work, is written to express certain emotions, feelings or ideas desired by the author. With no set format, poems come in all sorts of variations, each with its own sound, smell, and taste. The most successful poems masterfully give readers the Ah Ha! experience and invoke incomprehensible emotions in them that make them vulnerable to the poet's message. William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 and Sylvia Plath's Metaphors adequately contain imagery, lineations, and tone to shape the meaning and enable the rest of the reader's perception. However, no matter how elegant the poem's structure, the poem is nothing without the reader's interpretation. . Poetry comes to life through the author's ability to use words in combinations that allow readers to create their own story. A poem is a moment captured by the poet and written tactfully, without any limitations. Nevertheless, the poet writes the poem with the clear conviction of taking the reader in his arms and taking him on a journey of inexplicable experiences. The vitality of the poem comes from the reader, if a poem is able to surprise and shake those who read it, then it has succeeded in coming to life; something about this poem was capable of capturing the complex mind of a reader. The connection formed between the poem and its reader dictates the grandeur and entity of the poem itself. Poems, in their most essential and stripped-down form, are nothing more than a clever combination of words. Imagery, metaphors, lineation, assonance, and consonance are elements that bring poems to life in the eyes of the reader, but what brings these elements to life? The words, on their own, draw specific pictures in people's minds by reminding them of events in which the word has a solid meaning...... middle of paper ...... It is clear to people poets that the poem is nothing without the interpretation of the readers and with the perfect combination of words, the poem comes to life. Works Cited Flanagan, Mark. "What is poetry? Capturing the indefinable." About.com. About.com, and Web. February 7, 2011. .Plath, Sylvia. “Metaphors”. Literature: a portable anthology. “Ed.” Stephen A. Scipione. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. Print Seaton, Maureen. “On language, love and little musicians. »28 November 10.Web.07 February 2011. .Shakespeare, William. “Sonnet 18.” Literature: a portable anthology. “Ed.” Stephen A. Scipione. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. Print.Warren, Robert Penn. “True love.” New and Selected Poems 1923-1985. New York: Random House. 1985.Print.