Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of languagesuch as phonaesthetics, sound

symbolism, and metreto evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.
Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as
the ChineseShijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and
the Homeric epics, the Iliad and theOdyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the
uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song andcomedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse
form and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more objectively informative, prosaic forms
of writing. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a fundamental creative act
employing language.
Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses. Devices
such asassonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects.
The use ofambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple
interpretations. Similarly figures of speech such as metaphor, simile and metonymy create a resonance between
otherwise disparate imagesa layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of
resonance may exist, between individualverses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm.
Some poetry types are specific to particular cultures and genres and respond to characteristics of the language in which
the poet writes. Readers accustomed to identifying poetry with Dante, Goethe, Mickiewicz and Rumi may think of it as
written in lines based onrhyme and regular meter; there are, however, traditions, such as Biblical poetry, that use other
means to create rhythm and euphony. Much modern poetry reflects a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing,
among other things, the principle of euphony itself, sometimes altogether forgoing rhyme or set rhythm. In today's
increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages.
HISTORY
Poetry as an art form may predate literacy. Epic poetry, from the Indian Vedas (17001200 BC) and Zoroaster's Gathas to
the Odyssey(800675 BC), appears to have been composed in poetic form to aid memorization and oral transmission, in
prehistoric and ancient societies. Other forms of poetry developed directly from folk songs. The earliest entries in the
ancient compilation Shijing, were initially lyrics, preceding later entries intended to be read.
The oldest surviving epic poem is the Epic of Gilgamesh, from the 3rd millennium BC in Sumer (in Mesopotamia,
[11]

now Iraq), which was written incuneiform script on clay tablets and, later, papyrus.

Other ancient epic poetry includes

the Greek epics Iliad and Odyssey, the Old Iranian books the Gathic Avesta and Yasna, the Roman national
epic, Virgil's Aeneid, and the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata.
The efforts of ancient thinkers to determine what makes poetry distinctive as a form, and what distinguishes good poetry
from bad, resulted in "poetics"the study of the aesthetics of poetry. Some ancient poetic traditions; such as,
contextually, Classical Chinese poetry in the case of the Shijing (Classic of Poetry), which records the development of
poetic canons with ritual and aesthetic importance. More recently, thinkers have struggled to find a definition that could
encompass formal differences as great as those between Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Matsuo Bash's Oku no
Hosomichi, as well as differences in context spanning Tanakh religious poetry, love poetry, and rap.
Classical thinkers employed classification as a way to define and assess the quality of poetry. Notably, the existing
fragments of Aristotle's Poeticsdescribe three genres of poetrythe epic, the comic, and the tragicand develop rules to
distinguish the highest-quality poetry in each genre, based on the underlying purposes of the

genre. Later aestheticians identified three major genres: epic poetry, lyric poetry, and dramatic poetry,
treating comedy and tragedy as subgenres of dramatic poetry. Aristotle's work was influential throughout the Middle East
during the Islamic Golden Age, as well as in Europe during the Renaissance. Later poets and aestheticians often
distinguished poetry from, and defined it in opposition to prose, which was generally understood as writing with a proclivity
to logical explication and a linear narrative structure.
This does not imply that poetry is illogical or lacks narration, but rather that poetry is an attempt to render the beautiful or
sublime without the burden of engaging the logical or narrative thought process. English Romantic poet John
Keats termed this escape from logic "Negative Capability". This "romantic" approach views form as a key element of
successful poetry because form is abstract and distinct from the underlying notional logic. This approach remained
influential into the 20th century.
During this period, there was also substantially more interaction among the various poetic traditions, in part due to the
spread of European colonialism and the attendant rise in global trade. In addition to a boom in translation, during the
Romantic period numerous ancient works were rediscovered.
20th-century disputes
Some 20th-century literary theorists, relying less on the opposition of prose and poetry, focused on the poet as simply one
who creates using language, and poetry as what the poet creates. The underlying concept of the poet as creator is not
uncommon, and some modernist poetsessentially do not distinguish between the creation of a poem with words, and
creative acts in other media. Yet other modernists challenge the very attempt to define poetry as misguided.
The rejection of traditional forms and structures for poetry that began in the first half of the 20th century coincided with a
questioning of the purpose and meaning of traditional definitions of poetry and of distinctions between poetry and prose,
particularly given examples of poetic prose and prosaic poetry. Numerous modernist poets have written in non-traditional
forms or in what traditionally would have been considered prose, although their writing was generally infused with poetic
diction and often with rhythm and tone established by non-metrical means. While there was a
substantial formalist reaction within the modernist schools to the breakdown of structure, this reaction focused as much on
the development of new formal structures and syntheses as on the revival of older forms and structures
Recently, postmodernism has come to convey more completely prose and poetry as distinct entities, and also among
genres of poetry, as having meaning only as cultural artifacts. Postmodernism goes beyond modernism's emphasis on the
creative role of the poet, to emphasize the role of the reader of a text (Hermeneutics), and to highlight the complex cultural
web within which a poem is read. Today, throughout the world, poetry often incorporates poetic form and diction from
other cultures and from the past, further confounding attempts at definition and classification that were once sensible
within a tradition such as the Western canon.

Elements of Poetry

POETRY ASSUMPTIONS
Readers of poetry often bring with them many related assumptions:

That a poem is to be read for its "message,"

That this message is "hidden" in the poem,
The message is to be found by treating the words as symbols which naturally do not mean what they say but
stand for something else,
You have to decipher every single word to appreciate and enjoy the poem.

There are no easy ways to dispel these biases. Poetry is difficult because very often its language is indirect. But so is
experience - those things we think, feel, and do. The lazy reader wants to be told things and usually avoids poetry
because it demands commitment and energy. Moreover, much of what poetry has to offer is not in the form of hidden
meanings. Many poets like to "play" with the sound of language or offer an emotional insight by describing what they see
in highly descriptive language. In fact, there can many different ways to enjoy poetry; this reflects the many different styles
and objectives of poets themselves. For an overview of the many ways to read a poem, Finally, if you are the type to give
up when something is unclear, just relax! Like we just said, there can be many different approaches to examining poetry;
often these approaches (like looking for certain poetic devices or examining the meaning of a specific phrase) do not
require a complete and exhaustive analysis of a poem. So, enjoy what you do understand!

FIRST APPROACHES
Read the poem (many students neglect this step). Identify the speaker and the situation. Feel free to read it more than
once! Read the sentences literally. Use your prose reading skills to clarify what the poem is about.Read each line
separately, noting unusual words and associations. Look up words you are unsure of and struggle with word associations
that may not seem logical to you.Note any changes in the form of the poem that might signal a shift in point of view. Study
the structure of the poem, including its rhyme and rhythm (if any). Re-read the poem slowly, thinking about what message
and emotion the poem communicates to you.
STRUCTURE and POETRY
An important method of analyzing a poem is to look at the stanza structure or style of a poem. Generally speaking,
structure has to do with the overall organization of lines and/or the conventional patterns of sound. Again, many modern
poems may not have any identifiable structure (i.e. they are free verse), so don't panic if you can't find it!

STANZAS: Stanzas are a series of lines grouped together and separated by an empty line from other stanzas. They are
the equivalent of a paragraph in an essay. One way to identify a stanza is to count the number of lines. Thus:

couplet (2 lines)
tercet (3 lines)
quatrain (4 lines)
cinquain (5 lines)
sestet (6 lines) (sometimes it's called a sexain)
septet (7 lines)
octave (8 lines)

FORM: A poem may or may not have a specific number of lines, rhyme scheme and/or metrical pattern, but it can still be
labeled according to its form or style. Here are the three most common types of poems according to form:
1. Lyric Poetry: It is any poem with one speaker (not necessarily the poet) who expresses strong thoughts and
feelings. Most poems, especially modern ones, are lyric poems.

2. Narrative Poem: It is a poem that tells a story; its structure resembles the plot line of a story [i.e. the introduction of
conflict and characters, rising action, climax and the denouement].

3. Descriptive Poem: It is a poem that describes the world that surrounds the speaker. It uses elaborate imagery and
adjectives. While emotional, it is more "outward-focused" than lyric poetry, which is more personal and introspective.
In a sense, almost all poems, whether they have consistent patterns of sound and/or structure, or are free verse, are
in one of the three categories above. Or, of course, they may be a combination of 2 or 3 of the above styles! Here are
some more types of poems that are subtypes of the three styles above:
Ode: It is usually a lyric poem of moderate length, with a serious subject, an elevated style, and an elaborate stanza
pattern.
Elegy: It is a lyric poem that mourns the dead. [It's not to be confused with a eulogy.]It has no set metric or stanzaic
pattern, but it usually begins by reminiscing about the dead person, then laments the reason for the death, and then
resolves the grief by concluding that death leads to immortality. It often uses "apostrophe" (calling out to the dead person)
as a literary technique. It can have a fairly formal style, and sound similar to an ode.
Sonnet: It is a lyric poem consisting of 14 lines and, in the English version, is usually written in iambic pentameter. There
are two basic kinds of sonnets: the Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet and the Shakespearean (or Elizabethan/English) sonnet.
The Italian/Petrarchan sonnet is named after Petrarch, an Italian Renaissance poet. The Petrarchan sonnet consists of an
octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines). The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (four lines each) and a
concluding couplet (two lines). The Petrarchan sonnet tends to divide the thought into two parts (argument and
conclusion); the Shakespearean, into four (the final couplet is the summary).
Ballad: It is a narrative poem that has a musical rhythm and can be sung. A ballad is usually organized into quatrains or
cinquains, has a simple rhythm structure, and tells the tales of ordinary people.
Epic: It is a long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of a legendary or historical hero.
Qualities of an Epic Poem:

narrative poem of great scope; dealing with the founding of a nation or some other heroic theme requires
a dignified theme requires an organic unity requires orderly progress of the action always has a heroic
figure or figures involves supernatural forces
written in deliberately ceremonial style

Other types of poems include:

Haiku: It has an unrhymed verse form having three lines (a tercet) and usually 5,7,5 syllables, respectively. It's usually
considered a lyric poem.
Limerick: It has a very structured poem, usually humorous & composed of five lines (a cinquain), in anaabba rhyming
pattern; beat must be anapestic (weak, weak, strong) with 3 feet in lines 1, 2, & 5 and 2 feet in lines 3 & 4. It's usually a
narrative poem based upon a short and often ribald anecdote.