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Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaïc ostensible meaning. Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese ''Shijing'', or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit ''Vedas'', Zoroastrian ''Gathas'', and the Homeric epics, the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey''. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's ''Poetics'', focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more objectively informative, prosaïc forms of writing. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a fundamental creative act employing language. Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly figures of speech such as metaphor, simile and metonymy create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individual verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm. Some poetry types are specific to particular cultures and genres and respond to characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. Readers accustomed to identifying poetry with Dante, Goethe, Mickiewicz and Rumi may think of it as written in lines based on rhyme and regular meter; there are, however, traditions, such as Biblical poetry, that use other means to create rhythm and euphony. Much modern poetry reflects a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing, among other things, the principle of euphony itself, sometimes altogether forgoing rhyme or set rhythm. In today's increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages. ==History== Poetry as an art form may predate literacy. Epic poetry, from the Indian ''Vedas'' (1700–1200 BC) and Zoroaster's ''Gathas'' to the ''Odyssey'' (800–675 BC), appears to have been composed in poetic form to aid memorization and oral transmission, in prehistoric and ancient societies.〔. Others suggest that poetry did not necessarily predate writing. 〕 Other forms of poetry developed directly from folk songs. The earliest entries in the ancient compilation ''Shijing'', were initially lyrics, preceding later entries intended to be read. The oldest surviving epic poem is the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', from the 3rd millennium BC in Sumer (in Mesopotamia, now Iraq), which was written in cuneiform script on clay tablets and, later, papyrus. The oldest love poem is only slightly younger sitting among Sumerian documents such as a court verdict from 2030 B.C. Other ancient epic poetry includes the Greek epics ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'', the Old Iranian books the ''Gathic Avesta'' and ''Yasna'', the Roman national epic, Virgil's ''Aeneid'', and the Indian epics ''Ramayana'' and ''Mahabharata''. The efforts of ancient thinkers to determine what makes poetry distinctive as a form, and what distinguishes good poetry from bad, resulted in "poetics"—the study of the aesthetics of poetry. Some ancient poetic traditions; such as, contextually, Classical Chinese poetry in the case of the ''Shijing'' (''Classic of Poetry''), which records the development of poetic canons with ritual and aesthetic importance. More recently, thinkers have struggled to find a definition that could encompass formal differences as great as those between Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales'' and Matsuo Bashō's ''Oku no Hosomichi'', as well as differences in context spanning Tanakh religious poetry, love poetry, and rap. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Poetry」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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