There are no forensic tests for poetry, in the sense that there are for musicians. It's obvious that if I can't pass Grade Five there's no point in booking the Wigmore Hall. But who can prescribe the skills I must achieve before I publish a poem? Who is to devise the exercises, the examinations? No doubt it is depressing enough to be dedicated to an art such as music or dance, which puts you through a long, rigorous training and then at a certain point may say: Sorry, this is as far as you get -- this is your level. But at least within a certain broad band of knowing, you know where you are. A poet like Auden, on the other hand -- a poet so abundantly stocked with ideas -- claimed never to finish a poem without the dreadful sense that he would never write again. My own experience is quite the opposite: when I am lucky enough to complete a poem, I imagine that I shall now be able to repeat the trick two or three times over. It is only later, as the wake of the excited passion recedes, that I realise I'm in for another long wait.

-- James Fenton (from Mistakes people make about poetry)