Peter Kreeft:
Music is not ornamented poetry, and poetry is not ornamented prose.
Poetry is fallen music, and prose is fallen poetry.
Prose is not the original language; it is poetry made practical.
Even poetry is not the original language; it is music made speakable, it is the words of music separated from their music.
In the beginning was music.
Kreeft, The Philosophy of Tolkien, p. 162.