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Poetry is considered an art form unto itself. Poets often write for the lyrical and evocative qualities in the words. Poems may be written to make the reader feel something deeply, or the words may be written with no real meaning at all.

The great poets, including Aristotle, Dante and Rumi, defined how future poets should write their prose. Particular attention was to be paid to iambic pentameter, resonance, assonance, onomatopoeia and rhyme. The oldest known poem was written in Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC. The poem is known as the “Epic of Gilgamesh”.

Poets today write in many different forms, using pieces of poetic art forms from around the world. Readers of poetry today are likely to find current poetry in the form of sonnets, Jintishi, Tanka, odes, free verse as well as a variety of other forms.

Just as books have genres, poetry does as well. There are seven specific genres in poetry. They include epic, narrative, prose, fable, lyric, dramatic and satirical poetry. Works in these genres can be attributed to a certain individual who discovered the particular genre. For example, one of the best-known epic poems was the Odyssey by Homer. Satirical poet Alexander Pope is well known for his Essay on Criticism, and Aesop is renowned for his children's fables.

Read a selection of poetry by today's poets for inspiration. Browse our titles and discover a new world of artistic expression, right at your fingertips!