we have it backwards; history is fiction, and poetry is truth

creating and destroying; flying cars, roc.camera, july.rocks

Past historical actions in history tend to be often interpreted through the lens of the societal values of the time. Take Alexander the Great for example, during the rise of nations was admired, compared to post WW2 German historians who thought he was a Hitler.

Where as poetry at the end of the day is a direct creation of the author of that specific moment in time, as real as one can phenomenologically remember it. Relativistic perceptions of how you feel, are real for the poets

It’s acknowledging that we don’t know, our human capacity for language and experience is inherently limited, and as real as it gets

It’s just worth noting that often, former politically involved players get exiled, and then they start writing these memoirs (Machiavelli, Thucydides, and Napoleon etc) all wanted to leave their point of view - I.e. they had an agenda, and there’s nothing wrong with that

That is not to discredit historians for offering a glimpse into truth; like Thucydides who created the genre of history though his as objective as possible experience of the Peloponnesian War, starting the genre of scientific history