Portal:Poetry

Welcome to the Poetry Portal

The first lines of the Iliad

Great Seal Script character for poetry, ancient China

Poetry (from the Greek word poiesis, "making") is a form of literary art that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, literal or surface-level meanings. Any particular instance of poetry is called a poem and is written by a poet. Poets use a variety of techniques called poetic devices, such as assonance, alliteration, euphony and cacophony, onomatopoeia, rhythm (via metre), and sound symbolism, to produce musical or incantatory effects. Most poems are formatted in verse: a series or stack of lines on a page, which follow a rhythmic or other deliberate pattern. For this reason, verse has also become a synonym (a metonym) for poetry.

Poetry has a long and varied history, evolving differentially across the globe. It dates back at least to prehistoric times with hunting poetry in Africa and to panegyric and elegiac court poetry of the empires of the Nile, Niger, and Volta River valleys. Some of the earliest written poetry in Africa occurs among the Pyramid Texts written during the 25th century BCE. The earliest surviving Western Asian epic poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, was written in the Sumerian language.

Early poems in the Eurasian continent evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing as well as from religious hymns (the Sanskrit Rigveda, the Zoroastrian Gathas, the Hurrian songs, and the Hebrew Psalms); or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Egyptian Story of Sinuhe, Indian epic poetry, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. (Full article...)

Selected article

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The conversation poems are a group of eight poems composed by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) between 1795 and 1807. Each details a particular life experience which lead to the poet's examination of nature and the role of poetry. They describe virtuous conduct and man's obligation to God, nature and society, and ask as if there is a place for simple appreciation of nature without having to actively dedicate one's life to altruism.

The Conversation poems were grouped in the 20th-century by literary critics who found similarity in focus, style and content. The series title was devised to describe verse where Coleridge incorporates conversational language while examining higher ideas of nature and morality. The works are held together by common themes, in particular they share meditations on nature and man's place in the universe. In each, Coleridge explores his idea of "One Life", a belief that people are spiritually connected through a universal relationship with God that joins all natural beings.

Critics have disagreed on which poem in the group is strongest. Frost at Midnight is usually held in high esteem, while Fears in Solitude is generally less well regarded.. (Full article...)

Selected image

French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau

image credit: Bibliothèque nationale de France

Poetry WikiProject

Charles Baudelaire

The poetry WikiProject works to improve the quality and scope of all poetry-related articles. Please join us!

Selected biography

Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", the "play for voices", Under Milk Wood, and stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child's Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. He became popular in his lifetime and remained so after his premature death in New York. In his later life he acquired a reputation, which he encouraged, as a "roistering, drunken and doomed poet".

Although Thomas was appreciated as a popular poet in his lifetime, he found earning a living as a writer difficult, which resulted in his augmenting his income with reading tours and broadcasts. His radio recordings for the BBC during the latter half of the 1940s brought him to the public's attention and he was used by the Corporation as a populist voice of the literary scene. In the 1950s, Thomas travelled to America, where his readings brought him a level of fame, though his erratic behaviour and drinking worsened. His time in America cemented Thomas' legend, where he recorded to vinyl works such as A Child's Christmas in Wales. (Full article...)

Did you know (auto-generated) -

• ... that John Mercer Johnson, a Father of Canadian Confederation, entertained the public and members of the London Conference of 1866 with poetry readings and ice-skating performances?
• ... that Charles Dickens's talking raven Grip inspired the poem "The Raven"?
• ... that the film Evangeline, based on a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was praised by Longfellow's daughter?
• ... that the poem "Ovid in the Third Reich" has been described as "a classic reaction" to the Eichmann trial, despite being published before the trial was held?
• ... that the 16th-century poet Fuzuli wrote a poetic letter titled "Complaint" after Ottoman officials cut his stipend?
• ... that a 1982 composition by David Sampson is based on a 1931 poem inspired by the ancient Greek Eleusinian Mysteries?

Selected poem

Beyond Seas by Sohrab Sepehri

I shall build a boat I shall cast it in the water I shall sail away from this strange earth Where no one awaken the heroes in the wood of love A boat empty of net And longing heart for pearls I shall continue sailing Neither I shall loose my heart for the blues Nor for the mermaids who emergeed from the water To spread their charm from their locks On the shining solitude of fishermen I shall continue sailing I shall continue singing “One should sail away, sail away.” The man in that town had no myth The woman in that town was not as brimful as a cluster of grapes No hall mirror repeated joys Not even puddles reflected a torch One should sail away, sail away Night has sung its song Now it is the turn of windows I shall continue sailing I shall continue singing Beyond the seas there is a town In which windows open to manifestation There rooftops quarter pigeons that looks at the jets of human intelligence In the hand of each 10-year-old child a branch of knowledge lies The townsfolk took at hedges As if they look at a flame, a tender dream Earth hears the music of your feeling And the fluttering sound of mythological birds are heard in the wind Beyond the seas there is a town Where the sun is as wide as the eyes of early-risers Poets inherit water, wisdom and light Beyond the seas there is a town! One must build a boat

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