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Definition: poetry from Philip's Encyclopedia

Literary medium that employs the line as its formal unit, and in which the sound, rhythm and meaning of words are all equally important. Until the modern introduction of the concept of free verse, poetry was characteristically written in regular lines with carefully structured metres, often with rhymes. See also literature; prose


poetry

From Blackwell Companions to Philosophy: A Companion to Aesthetics
One of the most ancient art forms, poetry, like other art forms, finds its roots embedded in activities that are not necessarily associated with art today, most notably religious rituals. Still, even while poetry is now commonly enjoyed for its own sake, many poems continue to be made for specific life events: weddings, funerals, presidential swearing-in ceremonies, anniversaries, and so on. Their connection to such events may call into question the art status of some poems; indeed, definitions of poetry (as is the case with definitions of art in general) must provide an account that establishes the art status of poems while still acknowledging that some poems may be parasitic upon human activities and events that have no intrinsically artistic goals. Questions of this sort already presuppose a notion of art that divorces artworks from those activities and events and establishes art-making as an endeavor in its own right, one that by definition is independent from any other goals and…
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Poetry
The origins of poetry are generally agreed to be in song, and the connection between verse and music has remained strong throughout history. It is nevertheless evident from the earliest surviving examples of poetry, and from poems passed down through an oral tradition that may date back to…
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Full text Article poetry

From Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature
When the American colonists fled England and the other European countries, they fled for various reasons, but important among those reasons was the issue of religious freedom—that is, freedom for the Puritans, not for everyone. America was a clean slate upon which might be written the Word of God; …
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Full text Article POETRY.

From The Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms
Accounts of poetry as a category tend to outline essential features in an argument that might claim general assent. The range of past and present usage of the word, however, eludes such unifying accounts and invites us to think of poetry as a word of ancient Gr. origin, with a long and rich hist. …
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Full text Article POETRY

From The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Accounts of Poetry as a category tend to outline essential features in an argument that might claim general assent. The range of past and present usage of the word, however, eludes such unifying accounts and invites us to think of Poetry as a word of ancient Gr. origin, with a long and rich hist. …
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Full text Article Poetry

From Encyclopedia of American Studies
Engraving. "Phillis Wheatley, Negro servant to...
The question of what constitutes American poetry depends on how one defines both American and poetry. Until the mi... …
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Full text Article POETRY

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army. ASHBERY, John International Herald Tribune , October 1989. Poetry is a kind of ingenious nonsense. In Spence , Anecdotes . ... …
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From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Imaginative literary form, particularly suitable for describing emotions and thoughts. Poetry is highly ‘compressed’ writing, often using figures of speech to talk about one thing in terms of another, such as metaphor and simile , that allows the reader to ‘unpack’ the poem's meaning for itself. …
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Full text Article POETRY

From The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment
No single literary style, form, or movement defines the poetry produced in the British-American colonies and early United States from 1750 to 1820, the years scholars usually classify as the heart of the American Enlightenment. Literary historians do not see these years as a distinct period in…
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From Keywords for Latina/o Studies
In a U.S. Latina/o context, poetry can be thought of in terms of both literary texts and expressive cultural practices, and the tension between these two understandings of poetry has been integral to the evolution of Latina/o literary and cultural studies. In the context of literary studies, we tend…
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Full text Article MARATHI POETRY.

From The Princeton Handbook of World Poetries
Dnyaneshwar's (1271–96) decision to compose the Bhavarthdeepika , a poetic commentary on the Bhagavad-Gītā , in Marathi, the common lang. of Maharashtra, instead of Sanskrit, the lang. of priests and scholars, was a radical gesture that inaugurated a powerful trad. of poetry in Marathi. Although…
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