Poetry

Poetry is a very difficult concept to define.   More often than not, it is defined merely as a composition that is written in rhythmical or metrical form.  It is also frequently defined in contrast to prose.   The care with which poets choose each individual word in a poem also set it apart from prose simply because the brevity of poetry requires a more strategic use of the language and, frequently, creates a more intense effect than prose.

"Distinctive of poetry at its best is an 'all-in,' maximally dense, simultaneous deployment of linguistic resources -- sound and rhythm as well as sense, the bringing together of numerous strands of meaning, through metaphor and other figures, through ambiguities (often unresolved), controlled associations and resonances, allusions:  all of these contributing to a well-integrated, unified effect. "  (Ted Honderich, Ed.. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy.  Oxford:  Oxford U., 1995, 691.)

Aristotle was the first to write a systematic study of poetry (and along with it drama, aesthetics,  and rhetoric) in his work Poetics (or Ars Poetica)  He begins Poetics with these words:

Let us here deal with Poetry, its essence and its several species, with the characteristic function of each species and the way in which plots must be constructed if the poem is to be a success; and also with the number and character of the constituent parts of a poem, and similarly with all other matters proper to this same inquiry; and let us, as nature directs, begin first with first principles.

Epic poetry, then, and the poetry of tragic drama, and, moreover, comedy and dithyrambic poetry, and most flute-playing and harp-playing, these, speaking generally, may all be said to be "representations of life." But they differ one from another in three ways: either in using means generically different or in representing different objects or in representing objects not in the same way but in a different manner. For just as by the use both of color and form people represent many objects, making likenesses of them-- [20] some having a knowledge of art and some working empirically--and just as others use the human voice; so is it also in the arts which we have mentioned, they all make their representations in rhythm and language and tune, using these means either separately or in combination. For tune and rhythm alone are employed in flute-playing and harp-playing and in any other arts which have a similar function, as, for example, pipe-playing. Rhythm alone without tune is employed by dancers in their representations, for by means of rhythmical gestures they represent both character and experiences and actions.

Aristotle concludes that poetry is caused by imitation and/or melody and rhythm.  The art has developed over time through improvisation and continual innovation.

Etymology

Most of the earliest literary and religious works are poetry.  A central part of the oral tradition, poetry was used to carry news from town to town, to preserve and spread a group's cultural practices, history, and traditions.

 Aristotle wrote the first study of poetry which he entitled Poetics.  In it, he called poetry the finest art in the productive use of language.  He also wrote that poetry is a "more philosophical   and higher thing than history:  for poetry tends to express the universal, history the particular . . ."

 Most critics distinguish verse as a separate (and lower) form of metrical composition.  Poetry is considered to deal with loftier issues and to be a generally superior form of writing.  Despite this poets ranging from Ogden Nash, to Aristophanes, John Donne, Byron, Chaucer, Pope, and Auden have all written "light" humorous verse.

History

Aristotle on Poetics