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Friday 12 August 2011

UNDERSTANDING POETRY

AFTER EXTENSIVE AND THOROUGH RESEARCH ON POETRY I COMPILED THIS PIECE AND DECIDED TO SHARE IT 

 Poetry, an English word coined from the Greek word ποιεω (poieo) meaning I create is a piece of writing through which human language which is mainly oral is used in a manner that differs from other genres of literature.
It conveys emotion or ideas to the reader's mind or listener's ear (if oral); it uses literary devices i.e. figures of speech to achieve incantatory effects. Poems frequently use imagery, word association, to generate meaning which  is what marks it as poetry.
 Due to its nature of emphasising linguistic form, it is difficult to translate poetry from one language into another. Most poetry works, use a lot of connotations which is importantly useful. These styles used can be difficult to interpret and causes different readers to understand a particular piece of poetry differently. Although there can be different interpretations, there can never be a definitive interpretation. Poetry conveys meaning in a more expansive and less condensed way. This does no imply that poetry is illogical, but rather, poetry is often created from the need to escape the logical, as well as expressing feelings in a less condensed manner. Forms of poetry which include narrative poetry and dramatic poetry, both of which can be used to tell stories. However, both these forms of poetry use the specific features of verse composition to make these stories more memorable or to enhance them in some way.
The Greek verb ποιεω poiéo ( I make or create)], gave rise to three words: ποιητης poiet?s ( the one who creates), ποιησις poíesis ( the act of creation) and ποιημα poíema ( the thing created]. From these we get three English words: poet (the creator), poesy (the creation) and poem (the created). A poet is therefore one who creates and poetry is what the poet creates.

The most vital element of sound in poetry is rhythm. Often the rhythm of each line is arranged in a particular meter. In the case of free verse, the rhythm of lines is often organized into looser units of cadence.
Poetry in English and other modern European languages often uses rhyme. Rhyming originated from the Arabic Language .The Arabs have always used rhymes extensively, most notably in their long, rhyming qasidas.  Alliteration is a key part of the poetic structure, which determines when the listener expects instances of rhyme or alliteration to occur. In this sense, both alliteration and rhyme, when used in poetic structures, help to emphasise and define a rhythmic pattern.  In addition to rhyme, alliteration adds so much structure to poetry, and plays a more subtle role in even free verse poetry by creating pleasing varied patterns and emphasizing or sometimes even illustrating semantic elements of the poem. Alliteration and rhyme are among the devices poets use to provide an aesthetically pleasing way of reading. Poetry depends less on the linguistic units of sentences and paragraphs, and more on units of organization that are purely poetic. The typical structural elements are the line, couplet, strophe, stanza, and verse paragraph.
In many instances, the effectiveness of a poem is derived  from the tension between the use of linguistic and formal writing.

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED READING AND NOW HAVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING  OF WHAT POETRY IS ALL ABOUT. THANK YOU AND HAVE A GREAT DAY!

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous19:56

    I feel that poems lets the audience into d mind of the poet. Thru poems,a poet tells d audience wat he is feeling on a much more deeper level. Poems are understood nt by trying to get d surface meaning bt by trying to feel wat d author feels. It is only then that d true meaning of a poem materializes.

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