Poetry

Poetry is a kind of writing that uses the sound, rhythm, and shape of words to create feeling and meaning. A piece of poetry is called a poem. Poems are usually shorter than stories, and they often break their lines in special ways to control how the words feel when read aloud. Poetry exists in every culture on Earth, and it is one of the oldest forms of art.

People wrote poems long before they had paper. The first poems were spoken or sung out loud, then memorized and passed from person to person. The oldest written poem we know of, called the Epic of Gilgamesh, was carved into clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia. It is more than 4,000 years old, older than the pyramids of Egypt. Long poems like this, which tell heroic stories, are called epics.

Poems use special tools that other writing usually does not. Rhyme is when two words end with the same sound, like "cat" and "hat." Rhythm is the pattern of stressed and unstressed beats, almost like the beat of a song. Imagery is when words paint a picture in your mind. Metaphor is when a poet says one thing is another, like calling the moon a silver coin.

There are many forms of poetry. A haiku is a Japanese form with only three lines and 17 syllables in total. A sonnet has 14 lines and a set rhyme pattern, and William Shakespeare wrote more than 150 of them. Free verse has no fixed rules at all. The poet picks the rhythm and line breaks that fit each poem. Many modern poets, like Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou, have used free verse to write about real life.

Poetry and music are close cousins. Song lyrics are a kind of poetry, and rap is one of the most rhythmic forms of poetry being written today. The ancient Greeks did not separate the two at all. Their poems were sung with a small harp called a lyre, which is where we get the word "lyrics."

Why does poetry still matter? A good poem can fit on one page and still hold an idea so big you keep thinking about it for years. Poems get read at weddings, funerals, sports events, and presidential inaugurations. People write them in journals when they cannot say what they feel any other way. Poetry takes ordinary words, the same words you use every day, and arranges them so they suddenly feel new.