Portal:Poetry

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 (derived from the Greek poiesis, "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, a prosaic ostensible meaning. A poem is a literary composition, written by a poet, using this principle.

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 poetry, the Epic of Gilgamesh, was written in Sumerian.

Early poems in the Eurasian continent evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, as well as 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, the Indian epic poetry, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient Greek attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song, and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse form, and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more objectively-informative prosaic writing. (Full article...)

Selected article

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"Ulysses" is a poem in blank verse by the Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892), written in 1833 and published in 1842 in his well-received second volume of poetry. An oft-quoted poem, it is popularly used to illustrate the dramatic monologue form. Facing old age, mythical hero Ulysses describes his discontent and restlessness upon returning to his kingdom, Ithaca, after his far-ranging travels. Despite his reunion with his wife Penelope and son Telemachus, Ulysses yearns to explore again.

The character of Ulysses (in Greek, Odysseus) has been explored widely in literature. The adventures of Odysseus were first recorded in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey (c. 800–700 BC), and Tennyson draws on Homer's narrative in the poem. Most critics, however, find that Tennyson's Ulysses recalls Dante's Ulisse in his Inferno (c. 1320). In Dante's re-telling, Ulisse is condemned to hell among the false counsellors, both for his pursuit of knowledge beyond human bounds and for his adventures in disregard of his family.

For much of this poem's history, readers viewed Ulysses as resolute and heroic, admiring him for his determination "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield". The view that Tennyson intended a heroic character is supported by his statements about the poem, and by the events in his life—the death of his closest friend—that prompted him to write it. In the twentieth century, some new interpretations of "Ulysses" highlighted potential ironies in the poem. They argued, for example, that Ulysses wishes to selfishly abandon his kingdom and family, and they questioned more positive assessments of Ulysses' character by demonstrating how he resembles flawed protagonists in earlier literature. (Full article...)

Selected image

Poetry WikiProject

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

Selected biography

Cædmon (/ˈkædmən/ or /ˈkædmɒn/) is the earliest English (Northumbrian) poet whose name is known. An Anglo-Saxon who cared for the animals at the double monastery of Streonæshalch (Whitby Abbey) during the abbacy (657–680) of St. Hilda (614680), he was originally ignorant of "the art of song" but learned to compose one night in the course of a dream, according to the 8th-century historian Bede. He later became a zealous monk and an accomplished and inspirational Christian poet.

Cædmon is one of twelve Anglo-Saxon poets identified in medieval sources, and one of only three of these for whom both roughly contemporary biographical information and examples of literary output have survived. His story is related in the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ("Ecclesiastical History of the English People") by Bede who wrote, "[t]here was in the Monastery of this Abbess a certain brother particularly remarkable for the Grace of God, who was wont to make religious verses, so that whatever was interpreted to him out of scripture, he soon after put the same into poetical expressions of much sweetness and humility in Old English, which was his native language. By his verse the minds of many were often excited to despise the world, and to aspire to heaven."

Cædmon's only known surviving work is Cædmon's Hymn, the nine-line alliterative vernacular praise poem in honour of God which he supposedly learned to sing in his initial dream. The poem is one of the earliest attested examples of Old English language and is, with the runic Ruthwell Cross and Franks Casket inscriptions, one of three candidates for the earliest attested example of Old English poetry. It is also one of the earliest recorded examples of sustained poetry in a Germanic language. (Full article...)

Did you know (auto-generated) -

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.

Topics

Recognized content

Extended content

Good articles

Did you know? articles

Good article nominees

Former good articles

Categories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories
Poetry
Poetry by country
Poetry by language
Poetry by period
Poems
Poets
Poetry-related lists
African poetry
Aviation poetry
Poetry awards
Poetry books
Characters in poems
Cultural depictions of poets
Poetry festivals
Genres of poetry
History of poetry
Poetry museums
Poetry organizations
Poetics
Poetry houses
Poetry publishers
Spoken word
Works about poetry
Poetry stubs
Poets
Poets by continent
Poets by ethnicity
Poets by genre
Poets by language
Poets by nationality
Poets by period
Poets by religion
Lists of poets
Male poets
Women poets
Poets of Alexander the Great
Ancient Roman poets
Ashiks
Blind poets
Children's poets
Cultural depictions of poets
Deaf poets
Poet-diplomats
Fictional poets
Formalist poets
Haiku poets
Humorous poets
Jacobite poets
LGBT poets
Marxist poets
Poètes maudits
Medieval poets
Mennonite poets
Modernist poets
Mystic poets
Objectivist poets
Oral poets
Outlaw poets
Poet priests
Poetry instructors
Poets laureate
Romantic poets
Sonneteers
Sound poets
Spoken word poets
Surrealist poets
Symbolist poets
War poets
Works about poets
Poet stubs
English poetry
English poems
English poets
English poetry books
Middle English poetry
Old English poetry
Genres of poetry
Poetry by genre
Epic poetry
Folk poetry
Graphic poetry
Jazz poetry
Laments
Monologues
Poetry movements
Narrative poems
Nonsense poetry
Nursery rhymes
Occitan literary genres
Slam poetry
Verse contests

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Discover Wikipedia using portals
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.