"What is his [the poet's] function? Certain it is not to lead people out of the confusion in which they find themselves. nor is it, I think, to comfort them while they follow their readers to and fro. I think that his function is to make his imagination theirs and that he fulfills himself only as he sees his imagination become the light in the minds of others. His role, in short, is to help people to live their lives."
January 1, 1970
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Poets