Portal:Poetry

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Introduction

The Parnassus (1511) by Raphael: famous poets recite alongside the nine Muses atop Mount Parnassus.

Poetry (the term derives from a variant of the Greek term, poiesis, "making") is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.

Poetry has a long history, dating back to prehistorical times with the creation of hunting poetry in Africa, and panegyric and elegiac court poetry were developed extensively throughout the history of the empires of the Nile, Niger and Volta river valleys . Some of the earliest written poetry in Africa can be found among the Pyramid Texts written during the 25th century BC, while the Epic of Sundiata is one of the most well-known examples of griot court poetry. The earliest Western Asian epic poetry, the Epic of Gilgamesh, was written in Sumerian. Early poems in the Eurasian continent evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient Greek attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. 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.

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Howl is a poem written by Allen Ginsberg in 1955, published as part of his 1956 collection of poetry titled Howl and Other Poems.

Ginsberg began work on "Howl" as early as 1954. In the Paul Blackburn Tape Archive at the University of California, San Diego, Ginsberg can be heard reading early drafts of his poem to his fellow writing associates. "Howl" is considered to be one of the great works of American literature. It came to be associated with the group of writers known as the Beat Generation, which included Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs.

There is no foundation to the myth that "Howl" was written as a performance piece and later published by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books. This myth was perpetuated by Ferlinghetti as part of the defense's case during the poem's obscenity trial, as detailed below. Upon the poem's release, Ferlinghetti and the bookstore's manager, Shigeyoshi Murao, were charged with disseminating obscene literature, and both were arrested. On October 3, 1957, Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that the poem was not obscene. (Full article...)

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Christina Rossetti, by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti

image credit: public domain

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Rabindranath Tagore (Bengali pronunciation: [rəˈbindrəˈnɑt ˈtɑɡɔr] ( listen)), also written Rabīndranātha Thākura (pronounced [rəˈbindrəˈnɑtə ˈtɑkʊrə]), (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. In translation his poetry was viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. Tagore introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing the best of Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of the modern Indian subcontinent, being highly commemorated in India and Bangladesh, as well as in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan. (Full article...)

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A Mountain Home by Heinrich Heine

On the mountain stands the shieling,
    Where the good old miner dwells;
Green firs rustle, and the moonbeams
    Gild the mountain heights and fells.

In the shieling stands an armchair,
    Carven quaint and cunningly;
Happy he who rests within it,
    And that happy guest am I.

On the footstool sits the lassie,
    Leans upon my lap her head;
Eyes of blue, twin stars in heaven,
    Mouth as any rosebud red.

And the blue eyes gaze upon me,
    Limpid, large as midnight skies;
And the lily finger archly
    On the opening rosebud lies.

"No, the mother cannot see us –
    At her wheel she spins away;
Father hears not-he is singing
    To the zitter that old lay."

So the little maiden whispers,
    Softly, that none else may hear,
Whispers her profoundest secrets
    Unmistrusting in my ear.

Now that auntie's dead, we cannot
    Go again to Goslar, where
People flock to see the shooting:
    'Tis as merry as a fair.

And up here it's lonely, lonely,
    On the mountain bleak and drear;
For the snow lies deep in winter;
    We are buried half the year.

And, you know, I'm such a coward,
    Frightened like a very child
At the wicked mountain spirits,
    Goblins who by night run wild."

Suddenly the sweet voice ceases;
    Startled with a strange surprise
At her own words straight the maiden
    Covers with both hands her eyes.

Louder outdoors moans the fir-tree,
    And the wheel goes whirring round;
Snatches of the song come wafted
    With the zitter's fitful sound.

Fear not, pretty one, nor tremble
    At the evil spirits' might;
Angels, dearest child, are keeping
    Watch around thee day and night.