poètes

Poètes is the plural form of poète in French and refers to poets collectively. A poet is a person who composes poetry, a literary art that uses language chosen for sound, rhythm, and imagery. Poetry may adopt traditional meters and rhymes or free verse; it often emphasizes condensed meaning, metaphor, and sonic effects.

In etymology, the word poète comes from Latin poēta, from Greek poiētēs, meaning "maker." In French, the designation appears in the medieval period with the rise of lyric poets such as the trouvères and troubadours, and later becomes the standard label for writers dedicated to the verse.

Poètes function in many roles: as chroniclers of feeling or sensation, as social or political commentators, as preservers of memory, and as experimenters with form. They work in diverse forms—sonnets, odes, ballads, epics, and increasingly free verse or prose poetry—and in a range of media, from manuscript and print to performance and digital platforms.

Historically, poets have been central to major literary movements. In the French tradition, poets of the 19th and 20th centuries—Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Verlaine, Rimbaud—helped shape modern poetry; globally, poets have led Romantic, modernist, postmodern, and contemporary currents. Poetry remains a recognized art form that foregrounds language's musical and imaginative possibilities while engaging with culture, politics, and personal experience.