What is "poetry"

Poetry \Po"et*ry\, n. [OF. poeterie. See Poet.]

1. The art of apprehending and interpreting ideas by the faculty of imagination; the art of idealizing in thought and in expression.

   For poetry is the blossom and the fragrance of all human knowledge, human thoughts, human passions, emotions, language.
   --Coleridge.

2. Imaginative language or composition, whether expressed rhythmically or in prose. Specifically: Metrical composition; verse; rhyme; poems collectively; as, heroic poetry; dramatic poetry; lyric or Pindaric poetry. ``The planetlike music of poetry.''
   --Sir P. Sidney.

   She taketh most delight In music, instruments, and poetry.
   --Shak.

late 14c., "poetry; a poem; ancient literature; poetical works, fables, or tales," from Old French poetrie (13c.), and perhaps directly from Medieval Latin poetria (c.650), from Latin poeta (see poet). In classical Latin, poetria meant "poetess."\n\n... I decided not to tell lies in verse. Not to feign any emotion that I did not feel; not to pretend to believe in optimism or pessimism, or unreversible progress; not to say anything because it was popular, or generally accepted, or fashionable in intellectual circles, unless I myself believed it; and not to believe easily. [Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962), forward to "Selected Poems"]\n

\n\n
\nPoetry -- meaning the aggregate of instances from which the idea of poetry is deduced by every new poet -- has been increasingly enlarged for many centuries. The instances are numerous, varied and contradictory as instances of love; but just as 'love' is a word of powerful enough magic to make the true lover forget all its baser and falser, usages, so is 'poetry' for the true poet.

[Robert Graves, "The White Goddess"]

n. 1 The class of literature comprising poems. 2 Composition in verse or language exhibiting conscious attention to patterns. 3 A poet's literary production 4 A 'poetical' quality, artistic and/or artfull, which appeals or stirs the imagination, in any medium

1. n. literature in metrical form [syn: poesy, verse]

2. any communication resembling poetry in beauty or the evocation of feeling

Poetry (founded as, Poetry: A Magazine of Verse), published in Chicago since 1912, is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. Founded by Harriet Monroe and now published by the Poetry Foundation, it is currently edited by Don Share. In 2007 the magazine has a circulation of 30,000, and printed 300 poems per year out of approximately 100,000 submissions. It is sometimes referred to as Poetry—Chicago.

Poetry has been financed since 2003 with a $200 million bequest from Ruth Lilly.

Poetry is a 2010 South Korean drama film written and directed by Lee Chang-dong. It tells the story of a suburban woman in her 60s who begins to develop an interest in poetry while struggling with Alzheimer's disease and her irresponsible grandson. Yoon Jeong-hee stars in the leading role, which was her first role in a film since 1994. The film was selected for the main competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Best Screenplay Award. Other accolades include the Grand Bell Awards for Best Picture and Best Actress, the Blue Dragon Film Awards for Best Actress, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress.

Poetry is a form of literature.

Poetry may also refer to:

• Poetry (film), a 2010 South Korean film directed by Lee Chang-dong
• Poetry (magazine), a journal published in Chicago
• "Poetry", a song by Danity Kane from their 2008 album platinum-selling album Welcome to the Dollhouse
• "Poetry", a song by Tamia from her 2004 album More

Poetry is an album by saxophonist Stan Getz which was recorded in 1983 and released on the Elektra/Musician label.

Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to 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 Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient 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 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 as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, 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 images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individual verses, 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 on rhyme 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.