In poetry,the word seems to operate as a unity of all its powers. Poetry is both perception and the thing perceived. Poetry like science is the process of discovering. The structure of poetry is an exact presentation of the nature of human perception. There is the general power of words in poetry or otherwise.
Poetry calls upon the full content, the total complex, of each word.
A poem is a structure of words which persists. The poem operates by creating a sound-structure which preserves the actual words. Rhyme locks the words of a poem together, as do repetition and rhythmic patterning or assonance and alliteration. The source of the effective poem, as of the effective musical composition or painting, is within the neural structuring of the poet. Beyond poetry then there is the greater mystery of the functioning of language.