When the mind of a person thirsted to see revelation of his own thought he wished to say it but not able to oust it out of his mind, when the first poet of this universe became able to sing a song he said the first verse and knew for a poem. But when was that time, we all doing question for that truth of wisdom.
It is believed that the history of poetry and poetic genres stretches back to ancient civilizations where some of the earliest written poetry existed, before that orally many doggerel were said ; and it has evolved over time to encompass a wide range of styles and forms. These prehistoric and ancient societies of the ancient world began their poetic words long, long ago, as we believed to guess for that. Whether the Epic of Gilgamesh which was written in the 7th century BCE during the Babylonian Era in Iraq was the first poem or Anne Bradstreet from America after her migration from UK in the 1600 wrote the first poem to America or whether it was originated from Ethiopia in a form of Geez language; we need a prove so this is a long research in the traditions of ancient lives to delve well.
From early poems of folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing , and from St Yared of the Ethiopian hymn composer who lived from 25 April 505 – 20 May 571) in the 6th century; or from ancient Sumerian priests in their hymns; we can see that poetry has as it has longer eons years of ages to be counted in centuries. Whatever and be its place and age, it is important to study the history of poetry as an alternative way of investigating ideas of "truth", evidence, narrative, and perspective. Because It provides an entry point to historical topics, that can be supplemented through other texts and forms of evidence.
In each continent there are unique histories of the beginning of a poem writing; in this context Africa is believed to be the richest continent of poetry history dating back to prehistorical times in the mood of hunters there were hunting poems, and in histories of empires of Nile and Nubians court poetries and court poets were be there to recite for their kings victory in palaces. Some of the earliest written poetry in Africa can be found among the Pyramid Texts written during the 25th century BCE; and most poems were sung by local artists with old instruments kora, kirar , begena xalam and the djembe drum.
As we read from ancient thinkers there were trends to define and categorize poetry in types by assessing its quality. Notably, the brilliant Aristotle as he described the three genres of poetry. The epic, comic and tragic and developed rules to distinguish the highest-quality poetry of each genre based on the underline purpose of genre.
Later as it has said aestheticians identified three major genres; epic, lyrical and dramatic poetry by treating comedy and tragedy as a subgenre of dramatic poetry. Then the distinction between prose and poem became an issue after some literary appraisal. After these all poetry has become widely popularized with its different forms as we have been said for it.
Types of poetry
Based on time and based on emotions
Poetry can be classified by two basic parameters: time and emotions. When we say by time we can categorize poetry based on its styles and written forms were known as a poem form and by poets living eras. When we say by emotion to mean that the category of poetry can be made by the emotion we see in the poem. Those emotions can be sadness through odes, Love through sonnets, politics through villanelles …etc. The main focus we need to agree is that in any type of poetry there are different types of poetry styles. Poetry styles are form of poems which are their own rhyme scheme and meter. In any poetry styles we have poetic devices which can’t isolate the form but to be used as ingredients of a poem to make it more sensual beyond the meaning and message of the poem.
- Types of poetry by time
There are three types of poetry in the time category. Traditional or classical poetry, mediaeval poetry and contemporary poetry..
- Traditional or classical poetry
Traditional or classic poetry is a type of poetry which was written by the tradition of ancient eons to convey thoughts artistically. This types of poetries use more classic ways of oral recitation in those previous eras of traditional poets by using forms of traditional poetry. There are usual forms of traditional poetry which are bases till the modern age. These traditional forms are couplets, tercets, quatrain, and quintets of easy forms just by making rhymes at the end of two lines, three lines, four lines and five lines and beyond that. A couplet is a two line poem or verse, tercet is a three lines poem or verse or stanza, quatrain is a four line verse, stanza or poem…etc. these are traditional easy forms which were used with prose if prose were counted as a poem.
A verse is any two lines or three line or four line which has similar rhyme at the end. It is the single unit of a poem. A verse by it can be a poem or a stanza.. if a poem is only a verse it can be a full poem. A stanza is a group of verses which can be by it own a poem or with other stanzas forms a poem. You can have a tow lines stanza , three lines stanza, four lines stanza… ; for example Shakespeare sonnet has four stanzas to be a poem. The four lines of the first ,the second and the third stanza with two lines of the fourth stanza make Shakespeare sonnet . But in this context Shakespeare sonnet isn’t a traditional poetry.
- Mediaeval poetry
Medieval poetry is all about a poetry written in the middle age of Medieval Literary Period (455 CE - 1485 CE). These poems are Poems during the medieval era were religious in nature and written by clerics. They were used mostly in church and other religious events. Medieval poems were mainly read by minstrels. According to scholars, literature in the middle Ages was international rather than local. Most mediaeval poems were epics and also elegiac poems from Old English, usually centered on loss, mourning, and reflection. In this age ballads and epics were read by minstrels.
- Contemporary or modern poetry
In this age most poets were emerged with free verse style to write poems as they seemed for fearing of making rhyme and more freedom of writing with little worries. These ages were after the 15th century where the famous Shakespeare, Pushkin, the unseen Irish Poem Tomas Gent were bloomed with their amazing writing styles. In contemporary or modern poetry age many poets were recognized and emerged out with new styles of writing so this age can be said that poetic styles birth age. Many poetry styles have got their invention chance in this contemporary age of poetry. Ballade, ode, villanelle, haiku, tanka, Persian sonnet and more styles were invented in this age and have been in use by the nowadays poets all over the world
- Type of poetry by emotion
Emotions are the other parameter of poetics to divide the types of poems. And there are three types of poetry in the emotion category: these are sad, comic or dramatic, romance poetry category. Elegy is the well known sad poetry type; and are the well known comic or dramatic poetry types; and sonnets forms are well known for romance poetry types.
Whether the poem is written in the time or emotions based divisions, there is a poetry style which has been in all types of poetry ages and emotions; however, poetry styles have been more in use after the contemporary age of literature.
By Alemseged Sisay Woldemariam , January 16,2024