What is Poetry?

Poetry is an art form. It uses langauge for an aesthetic quality. It stems from the Greek Word, ποίησις, or poiesis, which means "making." It can be written independently or it can be used in conjunction with other acts.

It is one of the major forms of literature; which consist of Novel, Poem, Drama, the Short Story and the Novella. It makes use of particular forms and conventions or to suggest meaning and garner evocative and emotional responses. There is a movement to destinguish poetry from prose; and the most modern definition of poetry is "a fundamental creative act using language."

Poetry often makes use of a number of devices; assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and rhythm/rhyme are used to create a music affect, while symbolism, ambiguity, and irony help achieve a sytlistic effect. Metaphors, similes, and metonymies create a reasonating, layered meaning between different images.

Poetry has specific genres of its own, and it transcends cultures and exists everywhere that language exists. The goal of this unit is to look at certain generas of poetry: free verse, the haiku and cinquain, and the sonnet. While this is hardly ane exhaustive list, it can serve as a good introduction to the overall unit.