On the Poet and the Logician

As users of language, the poet and the logician stand at opposite poles.  To the logician, the sound of a word means nothing at all, while to the poet it is of the utmost importance.  To the logician, those words are of most value which change their meaning as little as possible when they are used in different contexts; the poet likes the meanings which change most, and is always trying to change them further himself.  The logician tries for statement, the poet for suggestion.

--Owen Barfield, from "Speech, Reason and Imagination" in Romanticism Comes of Age