Deerwalk Sifal School

The History of Poetry

- Aayotrie Chaudhary - 27019, G ... 11 September, 2023

We’ve all heard of poems before, most of us have written them as well, but where did poems start? What are the rules for writing poems? Do all poems need to have a meaning? Let’s start at the beginning with the main question, “What is a poem?”

The word “poem” originated from the Greek word “poiein” which has the meaning of “to make” and poems can be somewhat defined as an art form that uses lyrical verses to portray different perspectives. Though we don’t have a defined date for when people started to create poems, many assume that it had started back around as early as the 13th Century BC. Since poems are forms of art, there isn’t an exact set of rules that need to be followed when in the process of writing one, though this can differentiate depending on the type of people you’re writing to. There are many forms of poems which originate from different areas of the world. Some are listed below :

Haikus
Haiku poems originate from 13th Century Japan and follow a certain pattern, the first line of a Haiku poem will have five syllables , the second line will have seven, and the third line will have five once again. For example,
I write, erase, rewrite

Erase again, and then

A poppy blooms.

This is a Haiku poem written by Katsushika Hokusai that symbolizes how the writing process works, how many writers need to have several drafts before a poppy blooms or in a more basic sense, before their beautiful work is finished, among being a poet Katsushika Hokusai was also a brilliant artist and if famous for many of his artworks such as “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji”.

Limerick
Limericks originate from England though no one is exactly sure of when the use of Limericks started. Limericks are usually meant to be humorous, satirical, poems that follow a certain five-line rhyming pattern of AABBA, which means the first, second, and fifth line rhyme with each other and the third and fourth line rhyme with each other. For example:

“Hickory Dickory Dock,
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one;
The mouse did run.
Hickory Dickory Dock.”

This poem is one of the most commonly known limericks by Mother Goose who often wrote Limericks for children. Mother Goose is one of the widely known authors for young children stories or at least she is the fictional character that is often credited for children nursery rhymes that have been passed down for generations.

Free Verse
Free Verse is a modern form of poetry in which the poet can write pretty much whatever they wish, Free Verse poems do not have specific restrictions and is one of the most commonly used poems in today’s world. The writing of Free Verse poems started in the 19th Century. An example of a free verse poem :

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
Chickens

This poem was written by William Carlos Williams and published in 1923. It has a nice background to it as the poem is actually about a African-American friend named Marshall that William Carlos Williams had.

Among the poets mentioned above, there are also other famous poets, for instance, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, etc.
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, actor, and one of the highest regarded poets in history. One of his most popular works is the play “Romeo and Juliet”.
Edgar Allan Poe was a poet who was also famous for writing various short stories usually in the genre of death, love, thriller. His famous works include “The Raven”.
Emily Dickinson was an American poet who wrote a collection of lyric type poems including one of her most renowned works “ “Hope” is the thing with feathers ”.

Now, do all poems have to have a deep meaning, or just a meaning at all? The plain and simple answer of this is no. As we can see from the previous poems mentioned, poems don’t need to have a meaning and furthermore, poems are a form of art and therefore can be interpreted differently by different people. Yes, there might be a certain message that the poet might be trying to convey, but it’s entirely possible for people to miss the concept and think it’s trying to imply something else. Most poems nowadays don’t bluntly say the entire meaning of the said poem, instead the poets use similes, metaphors, personification, etc. and in my opinion, it’s a beautiful way of writing.

Sources:
- https://www.britannica.com/art/limerick-poetic-form
- https://poemanalysis.com/katsushika-hokusai/poems/
- https://www.britannica.com/art/poetry
- https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/a-brief-history-of-poetry