Portal:Poetry

Welcome to the Poetry Portal

The first lines of the Iliad

Great Seal Script character for poetry, ancient China

Poetry (a term derived from the Greek word 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 poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, was written in the Sumerian language.

Early poems in the Eurasian continent evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing as well as from 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, Indian epic poetry, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. (Full article...)

Selected article

Haiku by Matsuo Bashō reading "Quietly, quietly, / yellow mountain roses fall – / sound of the rapids"

Haiku (俳句, listen) is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 phonetic units (called on in Japanese, which are similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a kireji, or "cutting word"; and a kigo, or seasonal reference. However, haiku by classical Japanese poets, such as Matsuo Bashō, also deviate from the 17-on pattern and sometimes do not contain a kireji. Similar poems that do not adhere to these rules are generally classified as senryū.

Haiku originated as an opening part of a larger Japanese genre of poetry called renga. These haiku written as an opening stanza were known as hokku and over time they began to be written as stand-alone poems. Haiku was given its current name by the Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki at the end of the 19th century.

Originally from Japan, haiku today are written by authors worldwide. Haiku in English and haiku in other languages have different styles and traditions while still incorporating aspects of the traditional haiku form. Non-Japanese language haiku vary widely on how closely they follow traditional elements. Additionally, a minority movement within modern Japanese haiku (現代俳句, gendai-haiku), supported by Ogiwara Seisensui and his disciples, has varied from the tradition of 17 on as well as taking nature as their subject. (Full article...)

Selected image

Frontispiece from The Song of Los, William Blake

image credit: Library of Congress

Poetry WikiProject

Charles Baudelaire

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

Selected biography

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...)

Did you know (auto-generated) -

• ... that Saudi Arabian poet Hamad al-Hajji lost three members of his family during his childhood and later suffered from schizophrenia until he died at the age of 49 after a lung disease?
• ... that in the Six Poems by Marina Tsvetayeva, Dmitri Shostakovich wanted to convey how he imagined the poet's voice, "husky, hefty, occluded in the smoke of homegrown tobacco"?
• ... that Gheorghe Eminescu, nephew of Romania's national poet, spent time in communist prisons, including one which allocated him a 25-centimeters-wide (10-inch) sleeping area?
• ... that one reviewer for Women Philosophers in the Long Nineteenth Century was let down by the book's lack of poetry?
• ... that for the morning song "Die güldne Sonne voll Freud und Wonne", the poet found a new metre, and the composer a new melody, to reflect the many meanings of "rising"?
• ... that Ashiq Peri was the first prominent female folk poet in Azerbaijan?

Selected poem

A Hymn to God the Father by John Donne

Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun, Which is my sin, though it were done before? Wilt thou forgive that sin through which I run, And do run still, though still I do deplore? When thou hast done, thou hast not done, For I have more. Wilt thou forgive that sin by which I have won Others to sin? and made my sin their door? Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun A year or two, but wallowed in a score? When thou hast done, thou hast not done, For I have more. I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun My last thread, I shall perish on the shore; Swear by thy self, that at my death thy Son Shall shine as he shines now and heretofore; And, having done that, thou hast done, I fear no more.

Related portals

Topics

Recognized content

Categories

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

Indigenous 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

Poets with disabilities

Indigenous poets

LGBT poets

Male poets

Women poets

Poets of Alexander the Great

Ashiks

Children's poets

Communist poets

Cultural depictions of poets

Fictional poets

Formalist poets

Humorous poets

Jacobite poets

Marxist poets

Poètes maudits

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

Wikipedia categories named after poets

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

Rapping

Slam poetry

Verse contests

Associated Wikimedia

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

• 

  Commons
  Free media repository

• 

  Wikibooks
  Free textbooks and manuals

• 

  Wikidata
  Free knowledge base

• 

  Wikinews
  Free-content news

• 

  Wikiquote
  Collection of quotations

• 

  Wikisource
  Free-content library

• 

  Wikiversity
  Free learning tools

• 

  Wiktionary
  Dictionary and thesaurus

Discover Wikipedia using portals

• 

  List of all portals

• 

  The arts portal

• 

  Biography portal

• 

  Current events portal

• 

  Geography portal

• 

  History portal

• 

  Mathematics portal

• 

  Science portal

• 

  Society portal

• 

  Technology portal

• 

  Random portal

• 

  WikiProject Portals