Poetry

Posted: January 30th, 2010 by admin

Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain, by China’s Emperor Gaozong (1107–1187) of Song Dynasty; fan mounted as album leaf on silk, four columns in cursive script.

Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is traditionally a written art form (although there is also an ancient and modern poetry which relies mainly upon oral or pictorial representations) in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. The increased emphasis on the aesthetics of language and the deliberate use of features such as repetition, meter and rhyme, are what are commonly used to distinguish poetry from prose, but debates over such distinctions still persist, while the issue is confounded by such forms as prose poetry and poetic prose. Some modernists (such as the Surrealists) approach this problem of definition by defining poetry not as a literary genre within a set of genres, but as the very manifestation of human imagination, the substance which all creative acts derive from.

Poetry often uses condensed form to convey an emotion or idea to the reader or listener, as well as using devices such as assonance, alliteration and repetition to achieve musical or incantatory effects. Furthermore, poems often make heavy use of imagery, word association, and musical qualities. Because of its reliance on “accidental” features of language and connotational meaning, poetry is notoriously difficult to translate. Similarly, poetry’s use of nuance and symbolism can make it difficult to interpret a poem or can leave a poem open to multiple interpretations.

It is difficult to define poetry definitively, especially when one considers that poetry encompasses forms as different as epic narratives and haiku. Needless to say, many poets have given their own definitions. Carl Sandburg said that, “poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.” Robert Frost once said “Poetry is the first thing lost in translation.”