William Shakespeare William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s greatest dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon” (or simply “the Bard”). His extant works, including collaborations,...
Haiku Haiku (俳句) is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a kireji, or “cutting word”, 17 on (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern and a kigo, or seasonal reference. Similar poems that do not adhere to these rules are generally classified...
Ghazal The ghazal (Arabic: غَزَل, Bengali: গজল, Hindi-Urdu: ग़ज़ल/غزَل, Persian: غزل, Azerbaijani: qəzəl, Turkish: gazel, Uzbek: gʻazal, Gujarati: ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The ghazal...
Villanelle A villanelle, also known as villanesque, is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet repeated alternately at the end of each subsequent stanza until the last stanza, which includes both repeated lines. The villanelle is an...
Shi In Poetry Shi (in poetry) and shih are romanizations of the character 詩/诗, the Chinese word for all poetry generally and across all languages. In Western analysis of the styles of Chinese poetry, shi is also used as a term of art for a specific poetic tradition, modeled after the Old Chinese works collected in the Confucian Classic of Poetry. This anthology included both aristocratic poems (the “Hymns”...
Sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form which originated in the Italian poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in Palermo, Sicily. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet’s invention for expressing courtly love. The Sicilian School of poets who surrounded him at the...
Epic Poetry An epic poem (Epic Poetry) is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily involving a time beyond living memory in which occurred the extraordinary doings of the extraordinary people who, in dealings with the gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants, the poet and their audience,...
Rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, exactly the same sound) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic effect in the final position of lines within poems or songs. More broadly, a...
Free Verse Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French vers libre form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Definition Free verse does not “proceed by a strict set of rules … is...
Narrative Poetry Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often using the voices of both a narrator and characters; the entire story is usually written in metred verse. Narrative poems do not need rhyme. The poems that make up this genre may be short or long, and the story it relates...
Elegy In English literature, an elegy is a poem of serious reflection, usually a lament for the dead. However, “for all of its pervasiveness … the ‘elegy’ remains remarkably ill defined: sometimes used as a catch-all to denominate texts of a somber or pessimistic tone, sometimes as a marker for textual...
Poems About God We have collected and put the best poems about God. Enjoy reading these insights and feel free to share this page on your social media to inspire others. What is God?, Who is God?, Who Created God?, and Does God exist? are the main questions that humankind is asking since...
I Believe… I Believe is a poem about the importance of friendship. I believe- that we don’t have to change friends if we understand that friends change. I believe- that no matter how good a friend is, they’re going to hurt you every once in a while and you must...
When You Thought I Wasn’t Looking Mary Rita Schilke Korzan wrote When You Thought I Wasn’t Looking to her mother 24 years ago, thanking her for all she had done as a mother, friend, and role model. She gave the poem to her mother and, a few months later, offered it...
Two Wolves The story of the Two Wolves is a popular legend of unknown origin, sometimes attributed to the Cherokee or Lenape people that is also known as “Which one do you feed“, “Grandfather Tells“, “The Wolves Within“, and “Tale Of Two Wolves“. It is a story of a grandfather using a metaphor of...
Friendship Poems We have collected and put the best Friendship Poems. Enjoy reading these insights and feel free to share this page on your social media to inspire others. Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. Friendship is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an association. Friendship has been...
God Saw You Getting Tired God Saw You Getting Tired was written in 1939 by Frances M. Coelho for her mother, Frances Medeiros. She took it out again on the 1st anniversary of my father’s death. I got to change 1-1/2 lines, so she wanted my name on the copyright...
Fill My Cup, Lord There are many poems called “Fill My Cup Lord“. These poems are inspired by John 4:1-30, Psalm 81:10, and Psalm 23:5 from the Bible. What Does “Fill Your Cup” mean? To fill your cup means to replenish those stores of mental, emotional, and physical energy. It means that...
Literary Theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, moral philosophy, social prophecy, and interdisciplinary themes relevant to how people interpret meaning. In the humanities in modern academia, the latter style of literary scholarship is...
Sufi Poetry Sufi poetry (شعر صوفی) has been written primarily in Persian, both for private devotional reading and as lyrics for music played during worship, or dhikr. Themes and styles established in Punjabi poetry, Sindhi poetry, Arabic poetry and mostly Persian poetry have had an enormous influence on Sufi poetry throughout the Islamic world, and is often part of Sufi...