Great wording Adam T. !!!!! I was going to look up the definition of the word,(I still am)but after what Adam T. put down, I don't think I'll get the best answer! Claire P. did a good job,too, although she looked on Wikipedia, Adam did it on his own(as far as I know). anyway, here is the defintion of poetry along with the source(you don't have to read all of it:
po·et·ry ( P ) Pronunciation Key (p-tr)
n.
The art or work of a poet.
Poems regarded as forming a division of literature.
The poetic works of a given author, group, nation, or kind.
A piece of literature written in meter; verse.
Prose that resembles a poem in some respect, as in form or sound.
The essence or characteristic quality of a poem.
A quality that suggests poetry, as in grace, beauty, or harmony: the poetry of the dancer's movements.
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[Middle English poetrie, from Old French, from Medieval Latin potria, from Latin pota, poet. See poet.]
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Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
poetry
n 1: literature in metrical form [syn: poesy, verse] 2: any communication resembling poetry in beauty or the evocation of feeling
Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University
poetry
has been well defined as "the measured language of emotion." Hebrew poetry deals
almost exclusively with the great question of man's relation to God. "Guilt,
condemnation, punishment, pardon, redemption, repentance are the awful themes
of this heaven-born poetry." In the Hebrew scriptures there are found three
distinct kinds of poetry, (1) that of the Book of Job and the Song of Solomon,
which is dramatic; (2) that of the Book of Psalms, which is lyrical; and (3)
that of the Book of Ecclesiastes, which is didactic and sententious. Hebrew
poetry has nothing akin to that of Western nations. It has neither metre nor
rhyme. Its great peculiarity consists in the mutual correspondence of sentences
or clauses, called parallelism, or "thought-rhyme." Various kinds of this
parallelism have been pointed out: (1.) Synonymous or cognate parallelism,
where the same idea is repeated in the same words (Ps. 93:3; 94:1; Prov. 6:2),
or in different words (Ps. 22, 23, 28, 114, etc.); or where it is expressed in
a positive form in the one clause and in a negative in the other (Ps. 40:12;
Prov. 6:26); or where the same idea is expressed in three successive clauses
(Ps. 40:15, 16); or in a double parallelism, the first and second clauses
corresponding to the third and fourth (Isa. 9:1; 61:10, 11).
(2.) Antithetic
parallelism, where the idea of the second clause is the converse of that of the
first (Ps. 20:8; 27:6, 7; 34:11; 37:9, 17, 21, 22). This is the common form of
gnomic or proverbial poetry. (See Prov. 10-15.)
(3.) Synthetic or constructive
or compound parallelism, where each clause or sentence contains some accessory
idea enforcing the main idea (Ps. 19:7-10; 85:12; Job 3:3-9; Isa. 1:5-9).
(4.)
Introverted parallelism, in which of four clauses the first answers to the
fourth and the second to the third (Ps. 135:15-18; Prov. 23:15, 16), or where
the second line reverses the order of words in the first (Ps. 86:2). Hebrew
poetry sometimes assumes other forms than these. (1.) An alphabetical
arrangement is sometimes adopted for the purpose of connecting clauses or
sentences. Thus in the following the initial words of the respective verses
begin with the letters of the alphabet in regular succession: Prov. 31:10-31;
Lam. 1, 2, 3, 4; Ps. 25, 34, 37, 145. Ps. 119 has a letter of the alphabet in
regular order beginning every eighth verse.
(2.) The repetition of the same
verse or of some emphatic expression at intervals (Ps. 42, 107, where the
refrain is in verses, 8, 15, 21, 31). (Comp. also Isa. 9:8-10:4; Amos 1:3, 6,
9, 11, 13; 2:1, 4, 6.)
(3.) Gradation, in which the thought of one verse is
resumed in another (Ps. 121). Several odes of great poetical beauty are found
in the historical books of the Old Testament, such as the song of Moses (Ex.
15), the song of Deborah (Judg. 5), of Hannah (1 Sam. 2), of Hezekiah (Isa.
38:9-20), of Habakkuk (Hab. 3), and David's "song of the bow" (2 Sam. 1:19-27).
Answered By: Good Answerer - 6/28/2006 |