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Welcome to the Poetry Portal
Poetry (a term derived from the Greek word poiesis, "making"), also called verse, is a form of literary art that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, literal or surface-level meaning. Such a literary composition is a poem and is written by a poet. Poetic devices such as assonance, alliteration, euphony and cacophony, onomatopoeia, rhythm (via metre), and sound symbolism commonly convey musical or incantatory effects.
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...)
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On the surface, the poem describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven; but at a deeper level, it represents, allegorically, the soul's journey towards God. At this deeper level, Dante draws on medieval Christian theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy and the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. Consequently, the Divine Comedy has been called "the Summa in verse". (Full article...)
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Poetry WikiProject
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Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that Leon Schidlowsky wrote the Misa sine nomine in memory of Víctor Jara for speaker, choirs, organ and percussion, juxtaposing mass texts with contemporary poetry and Torah verses?
- ... that Chadd Cumberbatch, a Montserratian poet and playwright, wrote a play called 1768 to tell the story of the island's St Patrick's Day slave rebellion?
- ... that scholarly study of the poetry of Kishvari, one of the most important Azerbaijani poets of the 15th and 16th centuries, only started in 1928?
- ... that Polish Renaissance poet Jan Kochanowski – considered "the founding father of Polish literature" – wrote threnodies, the first Polish-language tragedy, and epigrams?
- ... that Isabella Correa was one of the few Jewish women poets active in the Netherlands before the 19th century?
- ... that a fantasy novel by Irish poet and author Sarah Maria Griffin was sent to around 200,000 ticket-holders of the music festival Tomorrowland?
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| A Flower Given to My Daughter by James Joyce |
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Frail the white rose and frail are
Her hands that gave Rosefrail and fair-- yet frailest |
