# poetry_phenomenology_final **Opening (not a real abstract):** The Phenomenology of Poetry 1. Introduction A vexed claim in the philosophy of poetry is the form-content unity thesis. This thesis, usually attributed to Bradley (1909) or Brooks (1960), states that the formal features of the poem (e.g., meter and rhyme) and its meaning are inseparable, that is, are connected in such an intimate way that the appreciation of poetry seems to always be directed at both. This connection is usually thought to be not exhibited by other literary genres like novels, which often involve exclusive focus on the content of the text at the expense of its formal features. A classic argument put forward in support of this thesis is the no-paraphrase argument, which states that paraphrases of a poem are never successful, because they never share the same content of the poem they target. Given that paraphrases are attempts to separate content from