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Portal:Poetry

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Welcome to the Poetry Portal

The first lines of the Iliad
The first lines of the Iliad
Great Seal Script character for poetry, ancient China
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 other artistic effects. They also frequently organize these effects intos, which may be strict or loose, conventional or invented by the poet. Poetic structures vary dramatically by language and cultural convention, but they often use rhythmic metre (patterns of syllable stress or syllable (mora) weight). They may also use repeating patterns of phonemes, phoneme groups, tones (phonemic pitch shifts found in tonal languages), words, or entire phrases. These include consonance (or just alliteration), assonance (as in the dróttkvætt), and rhyme schemes (patterns in rimes, a type of phoneme group). Poetic structures may even be semantic (e.g. the volta required in a Petrachan sonnet).

Most written poems are formatted in verse: a series or stack of lines on a page, which follow the poetic structure. For this reason, verse has also become a synonym (a metonym) for poetry. (Full article...)

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"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow fall into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student, is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of a number of folk and classical references.

Poe claimed to have written the poem very logically and methodically, intending to create a poem that would appeal to both critical and popular tastes, as he explained in his 1846 follow-up essay "The Philosophy of Composition". The poem was inspired in part by a talking raven in the novel Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty by Charles Dickens. Poe borrows the complex rhythm and meter of Elizabeth Barrett's poem "Lady Geraldine's Courtship", and makes use of internal rhyme as well as alliteration throughout.

"The Raven" was first attributed to Poe in print in the New York Evening Mirror on January 29, 1845. Its publication made Poe widely popular in his lifetime, although it did not bring him much financial success. Soon reprinted, parodied, and illustrated, critical opinion is divided as to the poem's status, but it nevertheless remains one of the most famous poems ever written. (Full article...)

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Poetry WikiProject

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

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Mathnavi by Rumi
Mathnavi by Rumi
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (Persian: جلال‌الدین محمد بلخى), also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (جلال‌الدین محمد رومی), Mevlana or Mawlānā (مولانا, meaning Our Master), Mevlevi or Mawlawī (مولوی, meaning My Master), and more popularly in the English-speaking world simply as Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic. Rumi's importance is considered to transcend national and ethnic borders. Iranians, Turks, Afghans, Tajiks, and other Central Asian Muslims as well as the Muslims of South Asia have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy in the past seven centuries. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages and transposed into various formats. He has been described as the "most popular poet in America" and the "best selling poet in the US". (Full article...)

Selected poem

A Mountain Home by Heinrich Heine

On the mountain stands the shieling,
    Where the good old miner dwells;
Green firs rustle, and the moonbeams
    Gild the mountain heights and fells.

In the shieling stands an armchair,
    Carven quaint and cunningly;
Happy he who rests within it,
    And that happy guest am I.

On the footstool sits the lassie,
    Leans upon my lap her head;
Eyes of blue, twin stars in heaven,
    Mouth as any rosebud red.

And the blue eyes gaze upon me,
    Limpid, large as midnight skies;
And the lily finger archly
    On the opening rosebud lies.

"No, the mother cannot see us –
    At her wheel she spins away;
Father hears not-he is singing
    To the zitter that old lay."

So the little maiden whispers,
    Softly, that none else may hear,
Whispers her profoundest secrets
    Unmistrusting in my ear.

Now that auntie's dead, we cannot
    Go again to Goslar, where
People flock to see the shooting:
    'Tis as merry as a fair.

And up here it's lonely, lonely,
    On the mountain bleak and drear;
For the snow lies deep in winter;
    We are buried half the year.

And, you know, I'm such a coward,
    Frightened like a very child
At the wicked mountain spirits,
    Goblins who by night run wild."

Suddenly the sweet voice ceases;
    Startled with a strange surprise
At her own words straight the maiden
    Covers with both hands her eyes.

Louder outdoors moans the fir-tree,
    And the wheel goes whirring round;
Snatches of the song come wafted
    With the zitter's fitful sound.

Fear not, pretty one, nor tremble
    At the evil spirits' might;
Angels, dearest child, are keeping
    Watch around thee day and night.

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