The History of Poetry
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Poetry and literacy
The use of poetry predates written languages in most societies. In some cases, the poetry of preliterate peoples was passed down to later generations, often as part of a tradition of oral history. Epic poetry is perhaps one of the best known of the early styles.
Poetry as an art form may predate literacy. Many scholars, particularly those researching the Homeric tradition and the oral epics of the Balkans, suggest that early writing shows clear traces of older oral poetic traditions, including the use of repeated phrases as building blocks in larger poetic units. The Vedas (1500 - 500 BC)like the Odyssey (700 - 500 BC), appear to have been composed in poetic form to aid memorization and oral transmission.
Others suggest that poetry did not necessarily predate writing. See, for example, Jack Goody, The Interface Between the Written and the Oral (1987). Poetry appears among the earliest records of most literate cultures, with poetic fragments found on early monoliths, rune stones and stelae.
Ancient opinions on poetry and aesthetics
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 Recent opinions on poetry and aesthetics
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. See, e.g., The Message, by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. (1982)
Sumerian poetry
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. N.K. Sanders, "Introduction" to Gilgamesh (1960). 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.Guinness World Records 2007. Guinness World Records Limited, 2006.
Other old poetry
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.
Ancient Greek poetry
Early attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. (Ancient Greek metre was based on vowel length rather than stress patterns.) A rhythmic and repetitious form would make a long story easier to remember and retell, before writing was available as an aide-memoire. Many ancient works, like the Odyssey (700 - 500 BC), appear to have been composed in poetic form to aid memorization and oral transmission, in prehistoric and ancient societies. For one recent summary discussion, see Frederick Ahl, The Odyssey Re-Formed (1996).
Ghazal
The ghazal (Arabic: غزل) is a form of poetry common in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Bengali poetry among others. In classic form, the ghazal has from five to fifteen rhyming couplets that share a refrain at the end of the second line (which need be of only a few syllables). Each line has an identical meter, and there is a set pattern of rhymes in the first couplet and among the refrains. Each couplet forms a complete thought and stands alone, and the overall ghazal often reflects on a theme of unattainable love or divinity. The last couplet generally includes the signature of the author. Like other forms with a long history in many languages, many variations have been developed, including forms with a quasi-musical poetic diction in Urdu. Ghazals have a classical affinity with Sufism, and a number of major Sufi religious works are written in ghazal form. The relatively steady meter and the use of the refrain produce an incantatory effect, which complements Sufi mystical themes well. Among the masters of the form is the Persian poet Rumi.
Ode
Odes were first developed by poets writing in ancient Greek, such as Pindar,[1] and Latin, such as Horace, and forms of odes appear in many of the cultures influenced by the Greeks and Latins.[2] The ode generally has three parts: a strophe, an antistrophe, and an epode. The antistrophes of the ode possess similar metrical structures and, depending on the tradition, similar rhyme structures. In contrast, the epode is written with a different scheme and structure. Odes have a formal poetic diction, and general dealing with a serious subject. The strophe and antistrophe look at the subject from different, often conflicting, perspectives, with the epode moving to a higher level to either view or resolve the underlying issues. Odes are often intended to be recited or sung by two choruses (or individuals), with the first reciting the strophe, the second the antistrophe, and both together the epode. Over time, differing forms for odes have developed with considerable variations in form and structure, but generally showing the original influence of the Pindaric or Horatian ode. One non-Western form which resemble the ode is the qasida in Persian poetry.
Japanese Tanka
- Main article: Tanka
The Tanka is a form of Japanese poetry, generally not possessing rhyme, with five lines structured in a 5-7-5 7-7 patterns. The 5-7-5 phrase (the "upper phrase") and the 7-7 phrase (the "lower phrase") generally show a shift in tone and subject matter. Tanka were written as early as the Nara period by such poets as Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, at a time when Japan was emerging from a period where much of its poetry followed Chinese form. Tanka was originally the shorter form of Japanese formal poetry, and was used more heavily to explore personal rather than public themes. It thus had a more informal poetic diction. By the 13th century, Tanka had become the dominant form of Japanese poetry, and it is still widely written today.
The Dark Ages and Old English poetry
In the Dark Ages in Europe, most writing was in the form of poetry, even official documents. Old English poetry used alliteration extensively. Neither Old English poetry nor Ancient Greek poetry made great use of rhyme.
The context of historical poetry
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,[3] 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. For example, in the Arabic world, much diplomacy was carried out through poetic form in the 16th century. See Trickster's Travel's, Natalie Zemon Davis (2006). political rhetoric and invective. Examples of political invective include libel poetry and the classical epigrams of Martial and Catullus, light-hearted nursery and nonsense rhymes, and even medical texts.For example, many of Ibn Sina's medical texts were written in verse.
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 Val�ry]] 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."
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.[4] 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,[5] as well as in Europe during the Renaissance.[6] 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.[7] 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."[8] 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.
See also
- Poet's corner, a place where you can post your original poems
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Poetry" http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry July 17, 2003 and later versions
