One of the most brilliant teachers I've ever sat under. Stanley S. Ward PhD, explained why English poetry is the best in the world. English, you see, is a shotgun wedding of two contrasting linguistic streams -- the germanic (Anglo Saxon -- that 20% of our vocabulary used 80% of the time) and romantic (French). You can dip from either pool, depending on the effect you wish to convey. And the antagonism/tension between these strands makes it very hard to write good poetry -- but the results, when you succeed, are indeed noteworthy.