Poetry
The oldest surviving epic poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, dates from the 3rd millennium BCE in Sumer. It was written in cuneiform script on clay tablets and later on papyrus. The Istanbul tablet #2461, dating to 2000 BCE, describes an annual rite where a king symbolically married the goddess Inanna. Some scholars label this specific text as the world's oldest love poem. Poetry likely predates literacy itself, developing from folk epics and oral genres across Africa and Asia. Early examples include hunting poetry found in Africa and panegyric court poetry from empires along the Nile, Niger, and Volta River valleys. The earliest entries in the Classic of Poetry (Shijing) were initially lyrics that heavily influenced Confucius. Religious hymns like the Sanskrit Rigveda and Hebrew Psalms possibly developed directly from folk songs. Ancient Greek attempts to define poetry focused on speech used in rhetoric, drama, song, and comedy.
Prosody is the study of meter, rhythm, and intonation within a poem. Meter refers to the definitive pattern established for a verse, while rhythm is the actual sound resulting from a line. Languages vary significantly in how they establish timing through accents, syllables, or moras. Japanese functions as a mora-timed language, whereas Latin, Catalan, French, and Spanish are syllable-timed languages. English, Russian, and German operate as stress-timed languages. Varying intonation also affects perception, with some languages relying on pitch or tone. Classical Chinese poetics recognized two kinds of tones: level and oblique. Certain forms placed constraints requiring specific syllables to be either level or oblique. In Modern English verse, patterns of stresses primarily differentiate feet within a line. Old English poetry used a metrical pattern involving varied numbers of syllables but a fixed number of strong stresses per line. The chief device of ancient Hebrew Biblical poetry was parallelism, a rhetorical structure where successive lines reflected each other in grammatical structure and sound. Some classical poetry forms like Venpa had rigid grammars that ensured a specific rhythm.
Among the most common forms of poetry popular since the Late Middle Ages is the sonnet. By the 13th century it standardized into fourteen lines following a set rhyme scheme and logical structure. Petrarch further crystallized the form during the Italian Renaissance. Sir Thomas Wyatt translated these works in the 16th century, introducing the form into English literature. A traditional Italian sonnet follows an ABBAABBA rhyme scheme for the octave. The English Shakespearean sonnet introduces a third quatrain and a final couplet. Sonnets often make use of a volta, or turn, where an idea turns on its head. The villanelle is a nineteen-line poem made up of five triplets with a closing quatrain. It features two refrains initially used in the first and third lines of the opening stanza. Dylan Thomas wrote Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night using this form. Tanka is a form of unrhymed Japanese poetry with five sections totaling 31 on structured in a 5, 7, 5, 7, 7 pattern. Haiku evolved in the 17th century from hokku and contains three sections totaling 17 on. Matsuo Bashō remains the most famous exponent of haiku.
Narrative poetry tells a story and may be the oldest type of poetry. Many scholars conclude Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were composed of compilations of shorter narrative poems. Narrative poetry includes Scottish ballads and Baltic heroic poems rooted in preliterate oral tradition. Lyric poetry does not attempt to tell a story but instead portrays the poet's own feelings and states of mind. Christine de Pizan and John Donne are notable practitioners of lyric poetry. Epic poetry recounts the life and works of a heroic person or group in a continuous narrative. Examples include Virgil's Aeneid, Luís de Camões' Os Lusíadas, and the Mahabbarata. Satirical poetry serves as a powerful vehicle for political commentary. The Roman poet Juvenal wrote satires often intended for political purposes. An elegy is a mournful poem especially serving as a lament for the dead. Thomas Gray and Walt Whitman are among the notable practitioners of elegiac poetry. Dramatic poetry appears as drama written in verse to be spoken or sung. Greek tragedy in verse dates back to the 6th century B.C.
The rejection of traditional forms began in the first half of the 20th century alongside questioning the purpose of poetry itself. Modernist poets essentially do not distinguish between creating a poem with words and other creative acts. Free verse is composed of subtle prosodic elements rather than being formless. Robinson Jeffers experimented with sprung rhythm as an alternative to accentual rhythm. Marianne Moore and William Carlos Williams also rejected regular accentual meter as critical to English poetry. Postmodernism emphasizes the role of the reader through hermeneutics and highlights the complex cultural web within which a poem exists. Today poetry incorporates form and diction from other cultures further confounding attempts at definition. Literary critic Geoffrey Hartman used the phrase anxiety of demand to describe contemporary responses to older traditions. Harold Bloom stated that current generations of poets may yet be seen as what Stevens called a great shadow's last embellishment. The literary tradition continues to strongly orient itself toward earlier precursors initiated by Whitman, Emerson, and Wordsworth.
In the 2020s advances in artificial intelligence enabled the generation of poetry in specific styles and formats. A 2024 study found that AI-generated poems were rated by non-expert readers as more rhythmic and human-like than those written by well-known human authors. This preference may stem from the relative simplicity and accessibility of AI-generated poetry. Some participants found these works easier to understand. Digital poetry has emerged as a distinct genre alongside traditional forms. Prose poetry gained increasing popularity since the late 1980s with entire journals devoted to the genre. Slam poetry originated in 1986 in Chicago when Marc Kelly Smith organized the first slam. Language happenings are events focusing less on prescriptive genres but more as descriptive linguistic acts. These incorporate broader forms of performance art while poetry is read or created in the moment.
Common questions
When was the Epic of Gilgamesh written?
The oldest surviving epic poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, dates from the 3rd millennium BCE in Sumer. It was written in cuneiform script on clay tablets and later on papyrus.
What is the difference between meter and rhythm in poetry?
Meter refers to the definitive pattern established for a verse, while rhythm is the actual sound resulting from a line. Languages vary significantly in how they establish timing through accents, syllables, or moras.
Who introduced the sonnet form into English literature?
Sir Thomas Wyatt translated these works in the 16th century, introducing the form into English literature. By the 13th century it standardized into fourteen lines following a set rhyme scheme and logical structure.
Which poet wrote Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night using the villanelle form?
Dylan Thomas wrote Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night using this form. The villanelle is a nineteen-line poem made up of five triplets with a closing quatrain.
When did slam poetry originate in Chicago?
Slam poetry originated in 1986 in Chicago when Marc Kelly Smith organized the first slam. Language happenings are events focusing less on prescriptive genres but more as descriptive linguistic acts.