Poetry (from the Latin poeta, a poet) is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning. Poetry may be written independently, as discrete poems, or may occur in conjunction with other arts, as in poetic drama, hymns, lyrics, or prose poetry. It is published in dedicated magazines (the longest established being Poetry and Oxford Poetry), individual collections and wider anthologies.

Poetry and discussions of it have a long history. Early attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song, and comedy.[1] 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, such as manifestos, biographies, essays, and novels .[2] From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more loosely defined as a fundamental creative act using language.[3]

Poetry often uses particular forms and conventions to suggest alternative meanings in the words, or to evoke emotional or sensual 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, metaphor, simile, and metonymy [4] 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 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 Dante, Goethe, Mickiewicz and Rumi may think of it as being written in lines based upon rhyme and regular meter, there are traditions, such as Biblical poetry, that use other approaches to achieve rhythm and euphony. Much of modern British and American poetry is to some extent a critique of poetic tradition,[5] playing with and testing (among other things) the principle of euphony itself, to the extent that sometimes it deliberately does not rhyme or keep to set rhythms at all.[6][7][8] In today's globalized world poets often borrow styles, techniques and forms from diverse cultures and languages.

3 Types of Poetry

1. Narrative poetry is poetry that tells a story and is the oldest genre poetry. The most popular form of narrative poetry is probably the ballad. Narrative poetry is a poem which tells a story. Most commonly, the stories involve heroic events or are of cultural or national (or some degrees even local) importance. Subdivisions of narrative poetry include ballads and epics. "The Divine Comedy" by Dante, "Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe, and "Odyssey" by Homer are just a few of the major narrative pieces.

2. 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. The lyric poet addresses the reader directly and portrays his or her own feelings, state of mind, and perceptions. Common themes are love, war and peace, nature and nostalgia, grief and loss. Nature themes are also prominent in lyric poetry. Lyric poetry are poems focused on thought and emotion. The poems may be songs--and songs may be any other genre. The main sub-divisions include elegy, ode, and sonnet. Lyric poetry does not tell a story. Major lyric poems include "Go, Lovely Rose" by Sappho and Shakespeare's Sonnets.

3. Dramatic poetry is any poetry in which one or more characters speak. Dramatic poetry generally uses the conversation of the characters involved to tell a story or portray a situation. Dramatic poetry is written in verse that is meant to be spoken. It generally tells a story, but can also simply portray a situation. The majority of dramatic poetry is written in blank verse. The authors Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and William Shakespeare have all written important dramatic works.