Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The art or work of a poet.
- n. Poems regarded as forming a division of literature.
- n. The poetic works of a given author, group, nation, or kind.
- n. A piece of literature written in meter; verse.
- n. Prose that resembles a poem in some respect, as in form or sound.
- n. The essence or characteristic quality of a poem.
- n. A quality that suggests poetry, as in grace, beauty, or harmony: the poetry of the dancer's movements.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. That one of the fine arts which addresses itself to the feelings and the imagination by the instrumentality of musical and moving words; the art which has for its object the exciting of intellectual pleasure by means of vivid, imaginative, passionate, and inspiriting language, usually though not necessarily arranged in the form of measured verse or numbers.
- n. An imaginative, artistic, and metrical collocation of words so marshaled and attuned as to excite or control the imagination and the emotions; the language of the imagination or emotions metrically expressed. In a wide sense poetry comprises whatever embodies the products of the imagination and fancy, and appeals to these powers in others, as well as to the finer emotions, the sense of ideal beauty, and the like. In this sense we speak of the poetry of motion.
- n. Composition in verse; a metrical composition; verse; poems: as, heroic poetry; lyric or dramatic poetry; a collection of poetry.
Wiktionary
- n. The class of literature comprising poems.
- n. Composition in verse or language exhibiting conscious attention to patterns.
- n. A poet's literary production
- n. A 'poetical' quality, artistic and/or artfull, which appeals or stirs the imagination, in any medium
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The art of apprehending and interpreting ideas by the faculty of imagination; the art of idealizing in thought and in expression.
- n. Imaginative language or composition, whether expressed rhythmically or in prose. Specifically: Metrical composition; verse; rhyme; poems collectively
WordNet 3.0
- n. any communication resembling poetry in beauty or the evocation of feeling
- n. literature in metrical form
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek ποίησις (poiesis, "poetry"), from ποιέω (poieō, "I make, do, create"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English poetrie, from Old French, from Medieval Latin poētria, from Latin poēta, poet; see poet. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I have never been able to figure out what "SF poetry" is, what it's supposed to do, how it is different from other types of poetry**, so I can't join him in that argument, but I do think that the poetry that gets called SF Poetry ought to have a larger horizon, because by the standards of literature outside of the SF world, SF poetry makes most speculative fiction look daring and formally innovative.”
“ Although I remember fondly a poetry book someone made for me with his own Mad poetry that was a way kewl present!!”
“But waiving this, of which it was not my intention to speak, let me remark, that the reason why poetry will no longer go down with the public, _as poetry_, is, that the whole frame-work is worn out.”
“He had no idea that poetry -- _poetry_ -- rhymed "annuities" with "true it is" and "Jew it is.”
“As the unprejudiced reader sees [Dr Gummere proceeds] this clear and admirable account confirms the doctrine of early days revived with fresh ethnological evidence in the writings of Dr Brown and of Adam Smith, that dance, poetry and song were once a single and inseparable function, and is in itself fatal to the idea of rhythmic prose, of solitary recitation, as foundations of poetry .”
“These are not stark and stiffened persons, but the new-born poetry of God, poetry without stop, hymn, ode and epic, poetry still flowing and not yet caked in dead books with annotation and grammar, but Apollo and the Muses chanting still.”
“I have written before that any history of poetry is inevitably a history of change in poetry, and that an inevitable consequence is that the well-wrought urn is almost invariably a trivial accomplishment.”
“From this perspective, the lyrical topos of nightlife in poetry is the primary form of that which takes place, secondarily, in the world.”
“Simon: your comments about Af-Am poets are patronizing. & as I tried to suggest, “intelligence” in poetry is not about “display” or braininess.”
Panel 2: Aesthetic Lineage and Originality : Ange Mlinko : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation
“To read through his entire body of work in poetry is constantly revelatory and rewarding.”
small, busy flames : Stephen Burt : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘poetry’.
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Romanticism
Words to describe art of the Romantic Era
contorted, confusing, rebellious, puzzling, passion, bizarre, tortured, bruisy, emotion, brooding, dark, fantasy and 91 more...
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Mandles, Candles for Men
candles with a "manly" scent
a1 steak sauce, baseball glove, grillin' out, campfire, pigskin, bowling alley, musty locker room, chuck norris sweat, urinal deodorizer, bait shop, wet dog, hardware store and 210 more...
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Side effects may include...
Before you take that medication, you'd better read the warning label.
nausea, sweating, dizziness, dry mouth, drowsiness, vomiting, walking like an E..., spontaneous decap..., amnesia, anosmia, weltschmertz, flatulence and 68 more...
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Siamese-Twin Words
Idea from Will Shortz's NPR puzzle feature. Two words that share a common letter (end of first word and start of second word) and forming a larger word, e.g., mill and lion = mil-l-ion. Variants ...
cordial, portable, trillion, retort, preposition, palace, domesticity, passage, shallow, electorate, bootstrap, turkey and 9 more...
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NOT Made in China
Everything is made in China these days.
kiddie pools, popcorn buckets, silly putty, americium, steel poles, chainlink fence, gift cards, trolleys, champagne, poetry, collard greens, model rocket engines and 1 more...
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Lillyjames's Words
uncategorized words that I enjoy
replete, unabashed, dauntless, ubiquitous, fanged, blush, flush, murmur, mercurial, dishevelled, decrepit, raven and 146 more...
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Holli
Cancer, Mercury, water, moon, dark, emotion, nostalgia, angst, brooding, isolation, shadow, corner and 145 more...
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Buttery
Words that make me feel cozy
Feather, Mug, Knit, Socks, Snug, Soft, Butter, Nugget, Noodle, Curl, Billow, Lounge and 315 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Words I like
There's nothing more to this list, really.
lily, defenestrate, gloaming, aesthetically, melody, translucent, semiotics, wistful, linear, origami, plethora, schadenfreude and 92 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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ulyssean
... as in "by James Joyce"
stately, plump, aloft, gurgling, untonsured, chrysostomos, jowl, parapet, jesuit, indigestion, scutter, noserag and 688 more...
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Unusual and Random Words
My Favourite Kind
quagmire, soliloquy, aardvark, topaz, ardent, exquisite, pyromania, pyre, extravagant, obscure, quetzal, quibble and 199 more...
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Samme's Words
soliloquy, meander, creativity, magic, discovery, happiness, empowerment, abundance, [magnificent], iridescent, artistic, magical and 694 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Things I adore
words, linguistics, etymology, philosophy, literature, research, poetry, science, cognition, solitude, nihilism, zen and 139 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for poetry.
chained_bear "It was the custom for unmarried officers (the majority in those days) to visit the bungalows of the married for drinks on Sunday before lunch and sometimes before dinner on weekdays. I noticed very few came to us and as I knew Squire to be popular, I was anxious. 'Bertie', I asked one friendly youth, 'why don't more people come and see us?' He was embarrassed. 'Well', he finally managed to blurt out, 'It has got about that you read poetry'. 'Bother them all', I thought. 'I have never read it aloud'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 195 May 11, 2010
abnerone Expressionism; tags this word Mar 31, 2009
abnerone
Definition of Poetry
Wick and wax
of tallow smells
stands indifferent and alone,
The colorless
Silent sentinel emblematic
of many
Minds.
An empty room
In darkness stands
as silence grows,
engulfing space.
The Icon awaiting fire.
a. j. anon 2008®
Definitions of poetry are the most fleeting of all animals. Academic poetry has it's hybrid standards, the rest of all others are more forgiving and easier to obtain. This does not diminish the value in either instance. I prefer beer and sausage, you may prefer champaign and roe. Mar 31, 2009
oroboros “Ape Owe ‘Em�?
When fur stews can this sill leer I'm,
Toot rye tomb ache theme e'en ink Lear,
Youth inked wood butt bee weigh sting thyme;
Use eh, "It's imp lean on scents shear!"
Gnome attar; Anna lies align!
Nation mice lender verse says knot–
Fork rip tick poet real Ike mine,
How Aaron weal, demesnes allot.
– Deems Taylor (seen at Futility Closet) Feb 11, 2009
sionnach yea! Mary Jo Salter - probably my favorite modern poet. Jul 8, 2008
mollusque It's hard to keep alive that excitement some of us feel when you see someone using a verb as an adjective.
--Mary Jo Salter, quoted by Paul Gleason, 2008, "Anthologizing Yourself", Harvard Magazine 110(6): 17 Jul 7, 2008
brtom "Poetry. Well educated. Pity." Joyce, Ulysses, 15 Jan 1, 2008