The Chinese poem "Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain" by Emperor Gaozong (Song Dynasty)

Poetry Portal

Poetry (from the Greek ποίησις, poesis, "making" or "creating") is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. Image File history File links Quatrain_on_Heavenly_Mountain. ... Image File history File links Quatrain_on_Heavenly_Mountain. ... Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong Hand-painted Chinese New Years poetry pasted on the sides of doors leading to peoples homes, Old Town, Lijiang, Yunnan, China. ... Emperor Gaozong (June 12, 1107 – November 9, 1187), born Zhao Gou, was the tenth emperor of the Song Dynasty of China, and the first emperor of the Southern Song. ... The Song Dynasty (Chinese: ) was a ruling dynasty in China from 960-1279. ... Image File history File links Portal. ... The Bath, a painting by Mary Cassatt (1891-1892). ... Kittens are often considered quite cute. ... In linguistics, meaning is the content carried by the words or signs exchanged by people when communicating through language. ...

Poetry has a long history. Early attempts to define it, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy.^[1] Later attempts focused on features such as repetition and rhyme, and emphasised the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from prose.^[2] From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more loosely defined as a fundamental creative act using language.^[3] The history of poetry as an art form predates literacy. ... Aristotle (Greek: Aristotélēs) (384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ... Aristotles Poetics aims to give an account of poetry. ... A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Poetry often uses particular forms and conventions to expand the literal meaning of the words, or to invoke emotional or sensual responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. Poetry's use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly, metaphor and simile create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. link titleAssonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within a short passage of verse or prose. ... Alliteration is a stylistic device, or literary technique, in which successive words (more strictly, stressed syllables) begin with the same consonant sound or letter. ... // Rhythm (Greek ρυθμός = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds or other events over time. ... Music is a form of art and entertainment or other human activity that involves organized and audible sounds and silence. ... An incantation is the words spoken during a ritual. ... Look up ambiguity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Irony is a literary or rhetorical device in which there is a gap or incongruity between what a speaker or a writer says, and what is understood. ... Poetic diction is the term used to refer to the linguistic style, the vocabulary, and the metaphors used in the writing of poetry. ... In language, a metaphor (from the Greek: metapherin) is a rhetorical trope defined as a direct comparison between two or more seemingly unrelated subjects. ... A simile is a figure of speech in which the subject is compared to another subject. ... Resonance structures are diagrammatic tools in organic chemistry to symbolize resonant bonds between atoms in molecules. ...

Some forms of poetry are specific to particular cultures and genres, responding to the characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. While readers accustomed to identifying poetry with Shakespeare, Dante and Goethe may think of poetry as being written in rhyming lines and regular meter, there are other traditions, such as those of Du Fu and Beowulf, which use other approaches to achieve rhythm and euphony. In today's globalized world, poets often borrow styles, techniques and forms from different cultures and languages. Look up genre in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Durante degli Alighieri, better known as Dante Alighieri or simply Dante, (c. ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. ... Du Fu or Tu Fu (712–770) was a prominent Chinese poet during the Tang Dynasty. ... The first page of Beowulf This article is about the epic poem. ... Euphony describes flowing and aesthetically pleasing speech. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Poetics and history

Main articles: History of poetry and Literary theory

The Deluge tablet of the Gilgamesh epic in Akkadian, circa 2nd millennium BC.

Poetry as an art form may predate literacy^[4] Thus many ancient works, from the Vedas (2500 - 500 BC) to the Odyssey (700 - 500 BC), appear to have been composed in poetic form to aid memorization and oral transmission, in prehistoric and ancient societies.^[5] Poetry appears among the earliest records of most literate cultures, with poetic fragments found on early monoliths, rune stones and stelae. The history of poetry as an art form predates literacy. ... Literary theory is the theory (or the philosophy) of the interpretation of literature and literary criticism. ... Deluge Tablet (Babylonian, Gilgamesh) http://www. ... Deluge Tablet (Babylonian, Gilgamesh) http://www. ... The Deluge by Gustave Doré. The story of a Great Flood sent by God or the gods to destroy civilization as an act of divine retribution is a widespread theme in myths. ... The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Babylonia and is arguably the oldest known work of literature. ... Akkadian (lišānum akkadītum) was a Semitic language (part of the greater Afro-Asiatic language family) spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, particularly by the Assyrians and Babylonians. ... (3rd millennium BC – 2nd millennium BC – 1st millennium BC – other millennia) // Events To grasp the spirit of the 2nd millennium BC, we must divide it in two parts, for there is a period of change around its middle so important that it creates two separate sub-millennia. First half (2000... World literacy rates by country The traditional definition of literacy is the ability to use language–to read, write, listen, and speak. ... The Vedas (Sanskrit: वेद) are the main scripture in Hinduism, and are a large corpus of texts originating in Ancient India. ... Odysseus and Nausicaä - by Charles Gleyre The Odyssey (Greek: , Odusseia) is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to the poet Homer. ... A monolith is a geological or technological feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock. ... A rune stone in Lund Rune stones are stones with runic inscriptions dating from the early Middle Ages but are found to have been used most prominently during the Iron Age (Viking Age). ... Ancient Egyptian funerary stele Suenos Stone in Forres Scotland A stele (or stela) is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerary or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living—inscribed, carved in relief (bas...

The oldest surviving poem is the Epic of Gilgamesh, from the 3rd millennium BC in Sumer (in Iraq/Mesopotamia), which was written in cuneiform script on clay tablets and, later, papyrus.^[6] The Epic of Gilgamesh is based on the historical king Gilgamesh. The oldest love poem, found on a clay tablet now known as Istanbul #2461, was also a Sumerian poem. It was recited by a bride of the Sumerian king Shu-Sin, who ruled from 2037-2029 BC.^[7] The oldest epic poetry besides the Epic of Gilgamesh are the Greek epics Iliad and Odyssey and the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. The longest epic poems ever written were the Tibetan Epic of King Gesar and the Mahabharata. The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Babylonia and is arguably the oldest known work of literature. ... Sumer (or Shumer, Egyptian Sangar, Bib. ... Mesopotamia refers to the region now occupied by modern Iraq, eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and Southwest Iran. ...   The cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. ... Papyrus plant Cyperus papyrus at Kew Gardens, London Papyrus is an early form of paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that grows to 5 meters (15 ft) in height and was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt. ... Gilgamesh, according to the Sumerian king list, was the fifth king of Uruk (Early Dynastic II, first dynasty of Uruk), the son of Lugalbanda, ruling circa 2650 BCE. Legend has it that his mother was Ninsun, a goddess. ... The Sumerian language of ancient Sumer was spoken in Southern Mesopotamia from at least the 4th millennium BCE. Sumerian was replaced by Akkadian as a spoken language around 1800 BCE, but continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the first century AD... The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative literature. ... The Iliad (Ancient Greek , Ilias) is, together with the Odyssey, one of two ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer, a supposedly blind Ionian poet. ... Odysseus and Nausicaä - by Charles Gleyre The Odyssey (Greek: , Odusseia) is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to the poet Homer. ... The ancient Sanskrit epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata, laid the cornerstone for much of Hindu religion. ... The (DevanāgarÄ«: ) is an ancient Sanskrit epic attributed to the poet Valmiki and is an important part of the Hindu canon (smá¹›ti). ... Manuscript illustration of the Battle of Kurukshetra The (Devanagari: ), is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the . ... The Tibetan language is spoken primarily by the Tibetan people who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering South Asia, as well as by large number of Tibetan refugees all over the world. ... The Epic of King Gesar is a Tibetan epic poem about King Gesar, who ruled the mythical Kingdom of Ling. ...

Ancient thinkers sought to determine what makes poetry distinctive as a form and what distinguishes good poetry from bad, resulting in the development of "poetics", or the study of the aesthetics of poetry. Some ancient societies, such as the Chinese through the Shi Jing, one of the Five Classics of Confucianism, developed canons of poetic works that had ritual as well as aesthetic importance. More recently, thinkers struggled to find a definition that could encompass formal differences as great as those between Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and Matsuo Bashō's Oku no Hosomichi, as well as differences in context that span from the religious poetry of the Tanakh to love poetry to rap.^[8] Aristotles Poetics aims to give an account of poetry. ... ShÄ« JÄ«ng (Chinese: 詩經), translated variously as the Classic of Poetry, the Book of Songs or the Book of Odes, is the first major collection of Chinese poems. ... The Five Classics (五經, WÇ”jÄ«ng) is a corpus of five ancient Chinese books used by Confucianism as the basis of studies. ... Confucianist temple Thian Hock Keng in Singapore Confucianism (Traditional Chinese: , Simplified Chinese: , pinyin: Rúxué [   ], literally The School of the Scholars; or 孔教 Kŏng jiào, The Teachings of Confucius) is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of the early Chinese sage Confucius. ... Canterbury Tales Woodcut 1484 The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century (two of them in prose, the rest in verse). ... A statue of Bashō in Ogaki, Gifu. ... Statue of Bashō at ChÅ«sonji, Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture Oku no Hosomichi (Japanese: 奥の細道, meaning Narrow Road to Oku [the Deep North]) is a major work by Matsuo Bashō. Oku no Hosomichi was written based on a journey taken by Bashō in the late spring of 1689. ... This article is concerned with Biblical poetry, specifically poetry in the Hebrew Bible. ... TaNaKh [תנ״ך] (also Tanach, IPA: or ), is an acronym that identifies the Hebrew Bible. ... Romantic love is a form of love that is often regarded as different from mere needs driven by sexual desire, or lust. ... Popular West Coast rapper Snoop Dogg performing for the US Navy. ...

Context can be critical to poetics and to the development of poetic genres and forms. For example, poetry employed to record historical events in epics, such as Gilgamesh or Ferdowsi's Shahnameh,^[9] will necessarily be lengthy and narrative, while poetry used for liturgical purposes in hymns, psalms, suras and hadiths is likely to have an inspirational tone, whereas elegies and tragedy are intended to invoke deep internal emotional responses. Other contexts include music such as Gregorian chants, and formal or diplomatic speech^[10] political rhetoric and invective,^[11] light-hearted nursery and nonsense rhymes, and even medical texts.^[12] The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative literature. ... The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Babylonia and is arguably the oldest known work of literature. ... Shahnameh Scenes from the Shahnameh carved into reliefs at Tus, where Ferdowsi is buried. ... From the Greek word λειτουργία, which can be transliterated as leitourgia, meaning a public work, a liturgy comprises a prescribed religious ceremony, according to the traditions of a particular religion; it may refer to, or include, an elaborate formal ritual (such as the Catholic Mass), or a daily activity such as... A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a god or other religiously significant figure. ... Psalms (Tehilim תהילים, in Hebrew) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ... Sura (sometimes referred to as Surah) ( ) is an Arabic term literally meaning picture, evidence, or proof. ... Hadith ( translit: ) are traditions relating to the words and deeds of Muhammad. ... Elegy was originally used for a type of poetic metre (Elegiac metre), but is also used for a poem of mourning, from the Greek elegos, a reflection on the death of someone or on a sorrow generally. ... In general usage, a tragedy or tragoedy is a drama, movie or sometimes a real world event with a sad outcome. ... Gregorian chant is also known as plainchant or plainsong and is a form of monophonic, unaccompanied singing, which was developed in the Catholic Church, mainly during the period 800-1000. ... A nursery rhyme is a traditional song or poem taught to young children, originally in the nursery. ... Nonsense verse is a form of poetry, normally composed for humorous effect, which is intentionally and overtly paradoxical, silly, witty, whimsical or just plain strange. ...

The Polish historian of aesthetics, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, in a paper on "The Concept of Poetry," traces the evolution of what is in fact two concepts of poetry. Tatarkiewicz points out that the term is applied to two distinct things that, as the poet Paul Valéry observes, "at a certain point find union. Poetry [...] is an art based on language. But poetry also has a more general meaning [...] that is difficult to define because it is less determinate: poetry expresses a certain state of mind." WÅ‚adysÅ‚aw Tatarkiewicz WÅ‚adysÅ‚aw Tatarkiewicz (April 3, 1886, Warsaw – April 4, 1980, Warsaw) was a Polish philosopher, historian of philosophy, historian of art, esthetician, and author of works in ethics. ... For other people of the same name, see Valery. ...

Classical and early modern Western traditions

Classical thinkers employed classification as a way to define and assess the quality of poetry. Notably, Aristotle's Poetics describes the three genres of poetry: the epic, comic, and tragic, and develops rules to distinguish the highest-quality poetry of each genre, based on the underlying purposes of that genre.^[13] Later aestheticians identified three major genres: epic poetry, lyric poetry and dramatic poetry, treating comedy and tragedy as subgenres of dramatic poetry. Aristotle's work was influential throughout the Middle East during the Islamic Golden Age,^[14] as well as in Europe during the Renaissance.^[15] Later poets and aestheticians often distinguished poetry from, and defined it in opposition to, prose, which was generally understood as writing with a proclivity to logical explication and a linear narrative structure.^[16] This does not imply that poetry is illogical or lacks narration, but rather that poetry is an attempt to render the beautiful or sublime without the burden of engaging the logical or narrative thought process. English Romantic poet John Keats termed this escape from logic, "Negative Capability."^[17] This "romantic" approach views form as a key element of successful poetry because form is abstract and distinct from the underlying notional logic. This approach remained influential into the twentieth century. During this period, there was also substantially more interaction among the various poetic traditions, in part due to the spread of European colonialism and the attendant rise in global trade. In addition to a boom in translation, during the Romantic period numerous ancient works were rediscovered. Aristotles Poetics aims to give an account of poetry. ... Aesthetics (or esthetics) (from the Greek word αισθητική) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty. ... Lyric poetry is a form of poetry that does not attempt to tell a story, as do epic poetry and dramatic poetry, but is of a more personal nature instead. ... Verse drama is any drama written as verse to be spoken; another possible general terms is poetic drama. ... A Seljuk manuscript from the 13th century depicting Socrates (Soqrāt) in discussion with his pupils. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... John Keats John Keats (October 31, 1795 – February 23, 1821) was one of the principal poets of the English Romantic movement. ... Negative Capability is a theory of the poet John Keats, expressed in his letter to George and Thomas Keats dated Sunday, 21 December 1817. ... Romantic and romanticism have a number of uses: Titles: Romantic (song) by Karyn White. ...

Twentieth-century disputes

Some 20th-century literary theorists, relying less on the opposition of prose and poetry, focused on the poet as simply one who creates using language, and poetry as what the poet creates. The underlying concept of the poet as creator is not uncommon, and some modernist poets essentially do not distinguish between the creation of a poem with words, and creative acts in other media such as carpentry.^[18] Yet other modernists challenge the very attempt to define poetry as misguided, as when Archibald MacLeish concludes his ironic poem, "Ars Poetica," with the lines: "A poem should not mean / but be."^[19] To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Literary theory is the theory (or the philosophy) of the interpretation of literature and literary criticism. ... Mountebanks ... Archibald MacLeish Archibald MacLeish (May 7, 1892 – April 20, 1982) was an American poet, writer and the Librarian of Congress. ... Ars Poetica is the name of at least three pieces of literature. ...

Intellectual disputes over the definition of poetry, and over its distinction from other genres of literature, have been inextricably intertwined with the debate over the role of poetic form. The rejection of traditional forms and structures for poetry that began in the first half of the twentieth century, coincided with a questioning of the purpose and meaning of traditional definitions of poetry and of distinctions between poetry and prose. Numerous modernist poets have written in non-traditional forms or in what traditionally would have been considered prose, although their writing was generally infused with poetic diction and often with rhythm and tone established by non-metrical means.^[20] While there was a substantial formalist reaction within the modernist schools to the breakdown of structure, this reaction focused as much on the development of new formal structures and syntheses as on the revival of older forms and structures.^[21] (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar (often from (1900 to 1999 in common usage). ... New Formalism is a late-twentieth and early twenty-first century movement in American poetry that has promoted a return to metrical and rhymed verse. ...

More recently, postmodernism has fully embraced MacLeish's concept and come to regard boundaries between prose and poetry, and also among genres of poetry, as having meaning only as cultural artifacts. Postmodernism goes beyond modernism's emphasis on the creative role of the poet, to emphasize the role of the reader of a text, and to highlight the complex cultural web within which a poem is read.^[22] Today, throughout the world, poetry often incorporates poetic form and diction from other cultures and from the past, further confounding attempts at definition and classification that were once sensible within a tradition such as the Western canon. Andy Warhols iconic Marilyn Monroe // Postmodernism is an idea that has been extremely controversial and difficult to define among scholars, intellectuals, and historians, as it connotes to many the hotly debated idea that the modern historical period has passed. ... The Western canon is a canon of books and art (and specifically one with very loose boundaries) that has allegedly been highly influential in shaping Western culture. ...

Basic elements

Bust of Homer, one of the earliest European poets, in the British Museum

Photograph taken of the bust of Homer in the British Museum, London. ... Photograph taken of the bust of Homer in the British Museum, London. ... Homer (Greek Hómēros) was a legendary early Greek poet and rhapsode traditionally credited with the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey, commonly assumed to have lived in the 8th century BC. However, exact placement of these dates is unsure. ... The centre of the museum was redeveloped in 2000 to become the Great Court, with a tessellated glass roof by Foster and Partners surrounding the original Reading Room. ...

Prosody

Main article: Meter (poetry)

Prosody is the study of the meter, rhythm, and intonation of a poem. Rhythm and meter, although closely related, should be distinguished.^[23] Meter is the abstract pattern established for a verse (such as iambic pentameter), while rhythm is the actual sound that results from a line of poetry. Thus, the meter of a line may be described as being "iambic", but a full description of the rhythm would require noting where the language causes one to pause or accelerate and how the meter interacts with other elements of the language. Prosody also may be used more specifically to refer to the scanning of poetic lines to show meter. The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... In linguistics, prosody refers to intonation, rhythm, and vocal stress in speech. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... // Rhythm (Greek ρυθμός = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds or other events over time. ... Intonation is a term used to cover particular uses of tones in linguistics and music. ... In literature, meter or metre (sometimes known as prosody) is a term used in the scansion (analysis into metrical patterns) of poetry, usually indicated by the kind of feet and the number of them. ...

Methods of creating rhythm

Main articles: Timing (linguistics), tone (linguistics), and pitch accent

See also Parallelism, inflection, intonation, foot

The methods for creating poetic rhythm vary across languages and between poetic traditions. Languages are often described as having timing set primarily by accents, syllables, or moras, depending on how rhythm is established, though a language can be influenced by multiple approaches.^[24] Japanese is a mora-timed language. Syllable-timed languages include Latin, Catalan, French and Spanish. English, Russian and, generally, German are stress-timed languages. Varying intonation also affects how rhythm is perceived. Languages also can rely on either pitch, such as in Vedic or ancient Greek, or tone. Tonal languages include Chinese, Vietnamese, Lithuanian, and most subsaharan languages.^[25] In linguistics, the timing in a language comprises the rhythmic qualities of speech, in particular how syllables are distributed across time. ... It has been suggested that Tonal language be merged into this article or section. ... Pitch accent is a kind of accent system employed in many languages around the world. ... Parallelism means to give two or more parts of the sentences a similar form so as to give the whole a definite pattern. ... In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification or marking of a word (or more precisely lexeme) to reflect grammatical (that is, relational) information, such as gender, tense, number or person. ... Intonation is a term used to cover particular uses of tones in linguistics and music. ... In verse, many meters use a foot as the basic unit in their description of the underlying rhythm of a poem. ... In linguistics, the timing in a language comprises the rhythmic qualities of speech, in particular how syllables are distributed across time. ... In linguistics, the timing in a language comprises the rhythmic qualities of speech, in particular how syllables are distributed across time. ... In every language, speech emission is based on a sequence of elementary sound units; some of them play a specific part: through their isochronic recurrence, they produce the rhythm of the sentences. ... In every language, speech emission is based on a sequence of elementary sound units; some of them play a specific part: through their isochronic recurrence, they produce the rhythm of the sentences. ... Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Catalan in Europe Catalan IPA: (català ) is a Romance language, the official language of Andorra and co-official in the Spanish autonomous communities of Balearic Islands, Valencia (under the name Valencian) and Catalonia. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Intonation is a term used to cover particular uses of tones in linguistics and music. ... Pitch accent is a kind of accent system employed in many languages around the world. ... It has been suggested that Tonal language be merged into this article or section. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Tone (linguistics). ... Map showing the distribution of Niger-Congo languages The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the worlds major language families, and Africas largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. ...

Metrical rhythm generally involves precise arrangements of stresses or syllables into repeated patterns called feet within a line. In Modern English verse the pattern of stresses primarily differentiate feet, so rhythm based on meter in Modern English is most often founded on the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables (alone or elided). In the classical languages, on the other hand, while the metrical units are similar, vowel length rather than stresses define the meter. Old English poetry used a metrical pattern involving varied numbers of syllables but a fixed number of strong stresses in each line.^[26] In verse, many meters use a foot as the basic unit in their description of the underlying rhythm of a poem. ... In music, see elision (music). ... A classical language is a language with a literary tradition that can be judged as classical. According to George L. Hart: [To] qualify as a classical tradition, a language must fit several criteria: it should be ancient, it should be an independent tradition that arose mostly on its own not... In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ...

The chief device of ancient Hebrew Biblical poetry, including many of the psalms, was parallelism, a rhetorical structure in which successive lines reflected each other in grammatical structure, sound structure, notional content, or all three. Parallelism lent itself to antiphonal or call-and-response performance, which could also be reinforced by intonation. Thus, Biblical poetry relies much less on metrical feet to create rhythm, but instead creates rhythm based on much larger sound units of lines, phrases and sentences. Some classical poetry forms, such as Venpa of the Tamil language, had rigid grammars (to the point that they could be expressed as a context-free grammar) which ensured a rhythm.^[27] In Chinese poetry, tones as well as stresses create rhythm. Classical Chinese poetics identifies four tones: the level tone, rising tone, falling tone, and entering tone. Note that other classifications may have as many as eight tones for Chinese and six for Vietnamese. Hebrew redirects here. ... This article is concerned with Biblical poetry, specifically poetry in the Hebrew Bible. ... Psalms (Hebrew: Tehilim, תהילים) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh. ... Parallelism means to give two or more parts of the sentences a similar form so as to give the whole a definite pattern. ... This article is about the musical term. ... In music, a call and response is a succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different musicians, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or response to the first. ... Intonation is a term used to cover particular uses of tones in linguistics and music. ... Venpa (வெண்பா in Tamil) is a form of classical tamil poetry. ... Tamil (தமிழ் ) is a classical language and one of the major languages of the Dravidian language family. ... In linguistics and computer science, a context-free grammar (CFG) is a formal grammar in which every production rule is of the form V → w where V is a nonterminal symbol and w is a string consisting of terminals and/or non-terminals. ... // Rhythm (Greek ρυθμός = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds or other events over time. ... Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong Hand-painted Chinese New Years poetry pasted on the sides of doors leading to peoples homes, Old Town, Lijiang, Yunnan, China. ... Shi (è©©) is the Chinese word for poem; it can also be used to mean Chinese poetry other than lyrics, or (most commonly) the classical form of poetry developed in the late Han dynasty and which reached its zenith in the Tang dynasty. ... Tones in Chinese derive from the traditional Middle Chinese tone classes, known as Ping Sheng (平聲), Shang Sheng (上聲), Qu Sheng (去聲), and Ru Sheng (入聲), which in English in the linguistic literature, are sometimes called the level, rising, departing and entering tones. ... Entering tone (Simplified Chinese: 入声; Traditional Chinese: 入聲; pinyin: rùshÄ“ng) is one of four tones in the phonology in Middle Chinese. ...

The formal patterns of meter used developed in Modern English verse to create rhythm no longer dominate contemporary English poetry. In the case of free verse, rhythm is often organized based on looser units of cadence than a regular meter. Robinson Jeffers, Marianne Moore, and William Carlos Williams are three notable poets who reject the idea that regular accentual meter is critical to English poetry.^[28] Jeffers experimented with sprung rhythm as an alternative to accentual rhythm.^[29] Free verse (also at times referred to as vers libre) is a term describing various styles of poetry that are not written using strict meter or rhyme, but that still are recognizable as poetry by virtue of complex patterns of one sort or another that readers can perceive to be... John Robinson Jeffers (January 10, 1887–January 20, 1962) was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast. ... Marianne Moore photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1948 Marianne Moore (December 11, 1887 - February 5, 1972) was a Modernist American poet and writer. ... William Carlos Williams Dr. William Carlos Williams (sometimes known as WCW) (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963), was an American poet closely associated with Modernism and Imagism. ... Sprung rhythm is a poetic rhythm designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech. ...

Scanning meter

Main articles: Scansion and Systems of scansion

Meters in the Western poetic tradition are customarily grouped according to a characteristic metrical foot and the number of feet per line. For example, "iambic pentameter" is a meter composed of five feet per line in which the kind of feet called iambs predominate. The origin of this tradition of metrics lies in ancient Greek poetry, and poets such as Homer, Pindar, Hesiod, Sappho, and the great tragedians of Athens made use of such a metric system. In literature, meter or metre (sometimes known as prosody) is a term used in the scansion (analysis into metrical patterns) of poetry, usually indicated by the kind of feet and the number of them. ... There are almost as many systems of marking the scansion of a poem as there are books on the topic. ... Iambic pentameter is a meter in poetry. ... // Ancient Greek literature (before AD 300) Main article: Ancient Greek literature Classical Greek Ancient Greek literature refers to literature written in Ancient Greek from the oldest surviving written works in the Greek language until the 4th century and the rise of the Byzantine Empire. ... Homer (Greek Hómēros) was a legendary early Greek poet and rhapsode traditionally credited with the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey, commonly assumed to have lived in the 8th century BC. However, exact placement of these dates is unsure. ... Pindar Pindar (or Pindarus / Pindaros) (522 BC – 443 BC), considered the greatest of the nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, was born at Cynoscephalae, a village in Thebes. ... Bust, traditionally thought to be Seneca, now identified by some as Hesiod. ... Ancient Greek bust of Sappho the Eresian. ... Athens (Greek: Αθήνα, Athína IPA: ) is the capital and largest city of Greece and the birthplace of democracy. ...

Meter is often scanned based on the arrangement of "poetic feet" into lines.^[30] In English, each foot usually includes one syllable with a stress and one or two without a stress. In other languages, it may be a combination of the number of syllables and the length of the vowel that determines how the foot is parsed. For example, in Greek, one syllable with a long unstressed vowel may be treated as the equivalent of two syllables with short vowels. In Anglo-Saxon meter, the unit on which lines are built is a half-line containing two stresses rather than a foot.^[31] Scanning meter can often show the basic or fundamental pattern underlying a verse, but does not show the varying degrees of stress, as well as the differing pitches and lengths of syllables.^[32] In verse, many meters use a foot as the basic unit in their description of the underlying rhythm of a poem. ... Eduard Sievers developed a theory of the meter of Anglo-Saxon Alliterative verse. ... In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis given to certain syllables in a word. ... Pitch accent is a kind of accent system employed in many languages around the world. ... In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. ...

As an example of how a line of meter is defined, in English language iambic pentameter, each line has five metrical feet, and each foot is an iamb, or an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. When a particular line is scanned, there may be variations upon the basic pattern of the meter; for example, the first foot of English iambic pentameters is quite often inverted, meaning that the stress falls on the first syllable.^[33] The generally accepted names for some of the most commonly used kinds of feet include: Iambic pentameter is a meter in poetry. ... An iamb is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. ... In prosody the Inversion of a foot is the reversal of the order of its elements. ...

One of Henry Holiday's illustrations from Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark, written predominantly in anapestic tetrameter: "In the midst of the word he was trying to say / In the midst of his laughter and glee / He had softly and suddenly vanished away / For the snark was a boojum, you see."

• spondee — two stressed syllables together
• iamb — unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
• trochee — one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable
• dactyl — one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables
• anapest — two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable

The number of metrical feet in a line are described in Greek terminology as follows: Download high resolution version (455x675, 127 KB)An illustration by Henry Holiday from the 19th century. ... Download high resolution version (455x675, 127 KB)An illustration by Henry Holiday from the 19th century. ... Henry Holiday was an English Pre-Raphaelite artist, born on June 17, 1839 in London. ... Lewis Carroll. ... Lewis Carrolls The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in 8 Fits) is a nonsense poem about a group of adventurers hunting a legendary beast. ... Anapestic tetrameter is a poetic meter that has four anapestic metrical feet per line. ... In poetry, a spondee is a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables. ... An iamb is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. ... A trochee is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... A dactyl (Gr. ... An anapaest is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ...

• dimeter — two feet
• trimeter — three feet
• tetrameter — four feet
• pentameter — five feet
• hexameter — six feet
• heptameter — seven feet
• octameter — eight feet

There are a wide range of names for other types of feet, right up to a choriamb of four syllable metric foot with a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables and closing with a stressed syllable. The choriamb is derived from some ancient Greek and Latin poetry. Languages which utilize vowel length or intonation rather than or in addition to syllabic accents in determining meter, such as Ottoman Turkish or Vedic, often have concepts similar to the iamb and dactyl to describe common combinations of long and short sounds. In poetry, a dimeter is a metrical line of verse with two feet. ... In poetry, a trimeter is a metre of three metrical feet per line - example: When here the spring we see, Fresh green upon the tree. ... In poetry, a tetrameter is a line of four metrical feet: And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea (Anapaest tetrameter) (Byron, The Destruction of Sennacherib) You who are bent and bald and blind (Iambic tetrameter, except for the first foot which is a trochee) (W... In poetry, a pentameter is a line of verse consisting of five metrical feet: Be what you can if thus your heart so deem, For more the man will less the foible seem. ... Hexameter is a literary and poetic form, consisting of six metrical feet per line as in the Iliad. ... Heptameter is one or more lines of verse containing seven metrical feet (usually fourteen or twenty-one syllables). ... Octameter in poetry is a line of eight metrical feet. ... In Greek and Latin poetry, choriamb refers to a prosodic foot of four syllables, of the pattern long-short-short-long. ... Latin poetry was a major part of Latin literature during the height of the Latin language. ... In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. ... Intonation is a term used to cover particular uses of tones in linguistics and music. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... The verses of the Vedas have a variety of different meters. ...

Each of these types of feet has a certain "feel," whether alone or in combination with other feet. The iamb, for example, is the most natural form of rhythm in the English language, and generally produces a subtle but stable verse.^[34] The dactyl, on the other hand, almost gallops along. And, as readers of The Night Before Christmas or Dr. Seuss realize, the anapest is perfect for a light-hearted, comic feel.^[35] Cover of a 1912 edition of the poem. ... ...

There is debate over how useful a multiplicity of different "feet" is in describing meter. For example, Robert Pinsky has argued that while dactyls are important in classical verse, English dactylic verse uses dactyls very irregularly and can be better described based on patterns of iambs and anapests, feet which he considers natural to the language.^[36] Actual rhythm is significantly more complex than the basic scanned meter described above, and many scholars have sought to develop systems that would scan such complexity. Vladimir Nabokov noted that overlaid on top of the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of verse was a separate pattern of accents resulting from the natural pitch of the spoken words, and suggested that the term "scud" be used to distinguish an unaccented stress from an accented stress.^[37] Robert Pinsky 15 May 2005 Robert Pinsky (born October 20, 1940) is an American poet and former Poet Laureate of the United States (1997-2000). ... Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Набо́ков, pronounced ) (April 22, 1899 [O.S. April 10], Saint Petersburg – July 2, 1977, Montreux) was a Russian-American author. ...

Common metrical patterns

Main article: Meter (poetry)

Different traditions and genres of poetry tend to use different meters, ranging from the Shakespearian iambic pentameter and the Homerian dactylic hexameter to the Anapestic tetrameter used in many nursery rhymes. However, a number of variations to the established meter are common, both to provide emphasis or attention to a given foot or line and to avoid boring repetition. For example, the stress in a foot may be inverted, a caesura (or pause) may be added (sometimes in place of a foot or stress), or the final foot in a line may be given a feminine ending to soften it or be replaced by a spondee to emphasize it and create a hard stop. Some patterns (such as iambic pentameter) tend to be fairly regular, while other patterns, such as dactylic hexameter, tend to be highly irregular. Regularity can vary between language. In addition, different patterns often develop distinctively in different languages, so that, for example, iambic tetrameter in Russian will generally reflect a regularity in the use of accents to reinforce the meter, which does not occur or occurs to a much lesser extent in English.^[38] The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Iambic pentameter is a meter in poetry. ... Dactyllic hexameter (also known as heroic hexameter) is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme. ... Anapestic tetrameter is a poetic meter that has four anapestic metrical feet per line. ... This article or section may be confusing for some readers, and should be edited to be clearer. ... The term feminine ending has several meanings, depending on context. ... In poetry, a spondee is a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables. ... Iambic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. ...

Some common metrical patterns, with notable examples of poets and poems who use them, include:

• Iambic pentameter (John Milton, Paradise Lost^[39])
• Dactylic hexameter (Homer, Iliad;^[40] Ovid, The Metamorphoses)
• Iambic tetrameter (Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress")
• Iambic tetrameter (Aleksandr Pushkin, Eugene Onegin)^[41]
• Trochaic octameter (Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven")^[42]
• Anapestic tetrameter (Lewis Carroll, "The Hunting of the Snark";^[43] Lord Byron, Don Juan)^[44]
• Alexandrine, also known as iambic hexameter (Jean Racine, Phèdre)^[45]

John Milton, English poet John Milton (December 9, 1608 – November 8, 1674) was an English poet, best-known for his epic poem Paradise Lost. ... Title page of the first edition Paradise Lost (1667) is a poopy epic poem by the 17th century English poet John Milton. ... The Iliad (Ancient Greek , Ilias) is, together with the Odyssey, one of two ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer, a supposedly blind Ionian poet. ... Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... Cover of George Sandyss 1632 edition of The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world in terms of Greek and Roman mythology. ... Iambic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. ... Andrew Marvell (March 31, 1621 – August 16, 1678) was an English metaphysical poet, and the son of an Anglican clergyman. ... To His Coy Mistress is a poem written by the British author and Puritan statesman Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678) either during or just before the Interregnum. ... Iambic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. ... Aleksandr Pushkin by Vasily Tropinin Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (Russian: Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Пу́шкин, Aleksandr Sergeevič PuÅ¡kin,  ) (June 6, 1799 [O.S. May 26] – February 10, 1837 [O.S. January 29]) was a Russian Romantic author who is considered to be the greatest Russian poet[1] [2][3] and the founder of modern Russian... Eugene Onegin (Russian: Евгений Онегин, BGN/PCGN: Yevgeniy Onegin) is a novel in verse written by Aleksandr Pushkin. ... Trochaic octameter is a poetic meter that has eight trochaic metrical feet per line. ... Hello Steve. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Anapestic tetrameter is a poetic meter that has four anapestic metrical feet per line. ... Lewis Carroll. ... Lewis Carrolls The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in 8 Fits) is a nonsense poem about a group of adventurers hunting a legendary beast. ... Lord Byron, English poet Lord Byron (1803), as painted by Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, (January 22, 1788 – April 19, 1824) was the most widely read English language poet of his day. ... Byrons Don Juan (Pengiun Classics version) Don Juan is a long narrative poem by Lord Byron, based on the legend of Don Juan. ... An alexandrine is a line of poetic meter. ... Jean Racine. ... Phèdre was a 1677 play by Jean Racine, based on both the play Hippolytus by Euripides, and a later Roman play Phaedra by Seneca the Younger. ...

Rhyme, alliteration and assonance

The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written in alliterative verse and in paragraph form, not separated into lines or stanzas.

Main articles: Rhyme, Alliterative verse, and Assonance

Rhyme, alliteration, assonance and consonance are each methods for creating repetitive patterns of sound. These methods may be used as an independent structural element of a poem, to reinforce rhythmic patterns, or as a merely ornamental element of poem.^[46] Rhyme consists of identical ("hard rhyme") or similar ("soft rhyme") sounds placed at the end of lines or at predictable locations within lines ("internal rhyme").^[47] Languages vary in the richness of their rhyming structures, so that Italian, for example, has a rich rhyming structure where it is possible to maintain a limited set of rhymes throughout a lengthy poem. The richness results from having word endings which follow regular forms. English, with irregular word endings adopted from many other languages, is less rich in rhyme.^[48] The richness of rhyming structures in a language plays a significant role in determining what poetic forms are commonly used. Image File history File links Beowulf. ... Image File history File links Beowulf. ... The first page of Beowulf This article is about the epic poem. ... A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry. ... The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written in alliterative verse. ... link titleAssonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within a short passage of verse or prose. ... Alliteration is a stylistic device, or literary technique, in which successive words (more strictly, stressed syllables) begin with the same consonant sound or letter. ... Consonance is a stylistic device, often used in poetry. ... In poetry, internal rhyme, or middle rhyme, is rhyme which occurs within a single line of verse. ...

Alliteration and assonance played a key role in structuring early Germanic, Norse and Old English forms of poetry. The alliterative patterns of early Germanic poetry interweave meter and alliteration as a key part of their structure, so that the metrical pattern determines when the listener expects instances of alliteration to occur. This can be compared to an ornamental use of alliteration in most Modern European poetry, where alliterative patterns are not formal or carried through full stanzas.^[49] Alliteration is particularly useful in languages with less rich rhyming structures. Assonance, where the use of similar vowel sounds within a word rather than similar sounds at the beginning or end of a word, was widely used in skaldic poetry, but goes back to the Homeric epic. Because verbs carry much of the pitch in the English language, assonance can loosely evoke the tonal elements of Chinese poetry and so is useful in translating Chinese poetry. Consonance occurs where a consonant sound is repeated throughout a sentence without putting the sound only at the front of a word. Consonance provokes a more subtle effect than alliteration and so is less useful as a structural element. The skald was a member of a group of courtly poets, whose poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry. ...

Rhyming schemes

Main article: Rhyme scheme

In many languages, including modern European languages and Arabic, poets use rhyme in set patterns as a structural element for specific poet forms, such as ballads, sonnets and rhyming couplets. However, the use of structural rhyme is not universal even within the European tradition. Much modern poetry avoids traditional rhyme schemes. Classical Greek and Latin poetry did not use rhyme. Rhyme entered European poetry in the High Middle Ages, in part under the influence of the Arabic language in Al Andalus (modern Spain).^[50] Arabic language poets have always used rhyme extensively, most notably in their long, rhyming qasidas. Some rhyming schemes have become associated with a specific language, culture or period, while other rhyming schemes have achieved use across languages, cultures or time periods. Some forms of poetry carry a consistent and well-defined rhyming scheme, such as the chant royal or the rubaiyat, while other poetic forms have variable rhyme schemes. A rhyme scheme is like the pattern of rhyming like lines in a poem or in like lyrics for music. ... A ballad is a story in a song, usually a narrative song or poem. ... Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch, one of the best-known of the early Italian sonnet writers For the Saab automobile, see Saab Sonett, for the Japanese communications company see So-net. ... A couplet is a pair of lines of verse that form a unit. ... A rhyme scheme is like the pattern of rhyming like lines in a poem or in like lyrics for music. ... The cathedral Notre Dame de Paris, a significant architectural contribution of the High Middle Ages. ... The Arabic language ( ), or simply Arabic ( ), is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Al-Andalus (Arabic: الأندلس) was the Arabic name given to those parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Muslims from 711 to 1492. ... A qasida (also spelled qasidah) in Arabic قصيدة, in Persian قصیده, is a form of poetry from pre-Islamic Arabia. ... The chant royal is a poetic form that consists of five eleven-line stanzas with a rhyme scheme a-b-a-b-c-c-d-d-e-d-E and a five-line envoi rhyming d-d-e-d-E or a seven-line envoi c-c-d-d-e... Rubaiyat is a common shorthand name for the collection of Persian verses known more formally as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. ...

Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest Heaven; from Gustave Doré's illustrations to the Divine Comedy Paradiso Canto 31

Most rhyme schemes are described using letters that correspond to sets of rhymes, so if the first, second and fourth lines of a quatrain rhyme with each other and the third line does not rhyme, the quatrain is said to have an "a-a-b-a" rhyme scheme. This rhyme scheme is the one used, for example, in the rubaiyat form.^[51] Similarly, an "a-b-b-a" quatrain (what is known as "enclosed rhyme") is used in such forms as the Petrarchan sonnet.^[52] Some types of more complicated rhyming schemes have developed names of their own, separate from the "a-b-c" convention, such as the ottava rima and terza rima, discussed below. The types and use of differing rhyming schemes is discussed further in the main article. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (858x952, 205 KB) Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest Heaven (The Empyrean); from Gustave Dorés illustrations to the Divine Comedy, Paradiso Canto 31. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (858x952, 205 KB) Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest Heaven (The Empyrean); from Gustave Dorés illustrations to the Divine Comedy, Paradiso Canto 31. ... Durante degli Alighieri, better known as Dante Alighieri or simply Dante, (c. ... Although the details surrounding the life of Beatrice Portinari, pronounced bay-a-treech-eh, (1266-1290) are subject to much dispute, there is little doubt she was a major influence in Dante Alighieris life, influencing particularly his works of La Vita Nuova and La Divina Commedia. ... Doré photographed by Felix Nadar. ... Dante shown holding a copy of The Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, in Michelinos fresco. ... Enclosed rhyme (or enclosing rhyme) is the rhyme scheme abba (that is, where the first and fourth lines, and the second and third lines rhyme). ... A Petrarchan sonnet, also called the Italian sonnet, is a sonnet comprising an octave and a closing sestet. ... It has been suggested that Sicilian octave be merged into this article or section. ... Terza rima is a rhyming verse stanza form that was first used by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. ... A rhyme scheme is like the pattern of rhyming like lines in a poem or in like lyrics for music. ...

Ottava rima

The ottava rima<