A hippopotamus, in the bush, points out a zebra to another hippopotamus: “You see,” he says, “now that’s formalism.”
“Nothing about the sonnet is perfect for the love poem, either. Genre simply provides a way for the reader to look for things that have been done. A form is a useful thing to use. It has history and resonance. It informs you as to the way things have been done in the past.”
Samuel R. Delany