Poetry is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning. Poetry may be written independently as discrete poems or may occur in conjunction with other arts as in poetic drama, hymns or lyrics. Poetry and discussions of it have a long history. Early attempts to define poetry such as Aristotle's Poetics focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy.
Later attempts concentrated on feature such as repetition, verse form, rhyme and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from prose. From the midd-20th century poetry has sometimes been more loosely defined as a fundamental creative act using language.
The aim of this Biographical Encyclopaedia is to give an introduction to the poetry through its past, both distant and more recent and to serve as a useful work for the students of English Poetry. This encyclopaedia has been divided into two parts in alphabetical maner to esse the readers of poetry. |
