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Craig White's Literature Courses Poetry |
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In everyday use, most English speakers use "poetry" or "poems" to refer to "lyric poetry"—normally short verbal expressions of impressions or feelings; e. g., "I Wander'd Lonely As a Cloud," "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," or "My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose."
But in academic or old-fashioned uses, "poetry" can refer more broadly to all the genres we now call literature: lyric, drama, epic, even the novel, or to sub-genres of verse like narrative poems or the dramatic monologue.
Oxford English Dictionary. 1. Imaginative or creative literature in general . . . Obsolete.
2. The art or work of a poet.
2a. Composition in verse or some comparable patterned arrangement of language in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm; the art of such a compositio2a. Composition in verse or some comparable patterned arrangement of language in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm; the art of such a composition. Traditionally associated with explicit formal departure from the patterns of ordinary speech or prose, e.g. in the use of elevated diction, figurative language, and syntactical reordering.
2b. The product of this art as a form of literature; the writings of a poet or poets; poems collectively or generally.
2c. With capital initial. Chiefly poet. The poetic art personified (as a female being). [i.e., "the muse"]
2d. The expression or embodiment of thought or feeling in a manner regarded as characteristic of a poem; (also) the products of this expression. Freq. opposed to verse, prose, etc. ["verse" here might refer to the simple, familiar type of poetry found in a greeting card, or a poem as a party-salute to a friend; that is, such poems make no pretense to permanent or long-lasting value but briefly and pleasantly serve an occasion.]
2e. In extended use: creative or imaginative art in general. . . .
6a. fig. Something comparable to poetry in its beauty or emotional impact; a poetic quality of beauty and intensity of emotion; the poetic quality of something. In early use, chiefly in poetry of motion . . . : dancing.
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