Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet Buy this Print at AllPosters.com |
Poetry is a literary work meant to be read or spoken, relying strongly on word choice, sounds, and imagery to create a mood in the audience's mind or ear which may be romantic, ominous, wistful, sensual, inspiring, or daring. Poetry, also known as verse, may be defined in opposition to prose, which is language which is meant to convey meaning, with lesser emphasis on mood, word choice, and exact form of expression. Prose can be spontaneous, whereas poetry must usually be composed with care over a period of time.
Poetry is, to paraphrase Justice Harlan on pornography, "not easy to define but you'll know it when you see it." Poetry is as old as human speech and is a compressed form of speech (and song) in an imaginative manner that at its best evokes and releases human emotions and intuition. Shelley called it "the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds." And, William Wordsworth called this "impassioned expression" "the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge."
The History of Poetry
The use of poetry predates written languages in most societies. In some cases, the poetry of pre-literate peoples was passed down to later generations, often as part of a tradition of oral history. Epic poetry is perhaps one of the best known of the early styles.
In the Dark Ages in Europe, most writing was in the form of poetry, even official documents.
