How far does beautiful writing go?

For one of my classes I recently had to read a book of poetry that was also a memoir, and there was one thing my entire class could agree on: the writing was beautiful. Like underlines galore, I want to let every single word dissolve into me, beautiful.

But for the most part, we also all agreed that the plot wasn't always clear. In fact, sometimes it seemed rather nonexistent. We knew that each poem was a moment of the author's life that really resonated with her, but we didn't know what was going on.

I think the best books are the ones with beautiful writing I want to underline, characters I feel like exist in the real world, and a plot that keeps making me want to turn the page even when I should be sleeping. But to find all of this in one book isn't something I happen upon every day.

My class couldn't really come to a conclusion on how we felt about this particular book we had to read, but many people said when they started over, stopped reading for a plot and just absorbed the writing, they really enjoyed it.

So can you do this? Can you enjoy exquisite writing for just the writing? Or do you need some semblance of plot and understanding of the story to keep reading?