Unlike other literary forms that we can date to precise texts and time periods, it is a challenge to pinpoint the earliest work of poetry. In one form or another, poetry has been around for thousands of years. Indeed, poetry as an art form may even predate literacy. Many ancient works, such as the Vedas (1700 – 1200 BCE), were composed in poetic form to aid memorization and oral transmission of information in prehistoric and ancient societies. Poetry appears among the earliest records of most literate cultures, with poetic fragments found engraved on ancient stones.
The lengthy adventure poem known as an epic might be considered as the first type of poetry. The Epic of Gilgamesh is often cited as one of the earliest epic works, dating back to the 18th century BCE. Consisting of poems written in an ancient language, it’s a text that was discovered through many different versions during archaeological excavations. Other examples of early epic poems include the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, the latter of which has become an important narrative in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology throughout regions of Asia.
A list of the most notable works of epic poetry – at least in the Western world – would have to include the Iliad and the Odyssey, both works of Greek mythology that have been attributed by academics to the Greek poet Homer. The Iliad recounts the battle between Achilles, a famed warrior, and King Agamemnon during the Trojan War. A companion of sorts to the Iliad, the Odyssey depicts the long journey of its hero, Odysseus, after the conflict is over.
Sonnets were a form of poetry that came into being in the 13th century. The rhyme scheme of a sonnet varies depending upon whether it is Italian or English. The Italian poet Petrarca, after whom the Petrarchan sonnet is named, is perhaps one of the most well-known early writers of the sonnet, in which he specialized. Following his work in the 13th century, other poets created variations of the sonnet, but it became widely known as an English poetic form through the work of William Shakespeare in the 16th century. However, its popularity declined in the Restoration period (1660 – 1689).
The Restoration Period in England also saw the rise of literary elites, such as John Dryden. Perhaps one of the best-known names of English literary criticism, translation, drama and poetry, Dryden made his name as a poet with his poems making fun of important figures or genres. The form of these mock-heroic poems, and the use of poetic form for satire, did not end with Dryden. Alexander Pope carried on Dryden’s tradition of using poetry for comic purposes.
The 19th century saw the emergence of many poets of importance. The so-called English Romantics included figures like William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth and John Keats. During the same period, American poetry produced what are known as the fireside poets. Writers like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and William Cullen Bryant belonged to this group. In other circles, Walt Whitman revolutionized the 19th-century American spirit with his ‘Leaves of Grass’, while most of Emily Dickinson’s unconventional poems, written in the mid-to-late 1800s, were published only after her death.
During the 20th century, the waves of change brought about by world events influenced poetry, resulting in works by poets with distinct voices who came to enjoy global circulation. Around the turn of the 20th century, Whitman continued to edit and alter his 1855 edition of ‘Leaves of Grass’, which introduced a new period – and a variety of forms – for poetry. The extraordinary modernist style of Gertrude Stein overwhelmed American readers who bought her work ‘Tender Buttons’ in 1914. Those same readers were to be surprised again a short time later by T.S. Eliot’s employment of ancient languages and obscure references to other poetical texts in his famous poem, ‘The Waste Land’, written in 1927.
Another example of modernist poetry is the hugely important work of Claude McKay. An African-American poet born in Jamaica who emigrated to the US in 1912, he carried his homeland into his distinctly American poetic voice. Writing on war, racism and memories connected with his birthplace, McKay wrote notable poems such as ‘If We Must Die’ and ‘The Tropics in New York’.
The 20th century also witnessed a number of poets winning the Nobel Prize, from the United States to India. Rabindranath Tagore, who resisted pressure from the English language used by the rulers of the country at that time and wrote solely in his mother tongue, Bengali, won this esteemed award in 1913. He was followed by Irish poets William Butler Yeats in 1923 and Seamus Heaney in 1995.