poésie

Poésie (French for poetry) is a literary form that uses language chosen for its sound, imagery, and meaning to convey emotions, ideas, or narratives. It typically employs line breaks, rhythm, and sometimes metrical patterns or rhyme to create an effect that prose does not.

Etymology: From Latin poesis, from Greek poiēsis, meaning "making" or "creation." The term poetry in English shares the same root and broad scope as poésie in French, referring to the art of composing verse and the body of works produced in this form.

Forms and features: Poetry often uses devices such as metaphor, simile, personification, imagery, alliteration, assonance, and enjambment. It may follow traditional forms with prescribed meter and rhyme (sonnet, ballade, villanelle) or adopt free verse, which abandons regular metrical structure. Other modes include epic, lyric, ode, haiku-inspired micro-poems, and performance poetry.

History and traditions: Poetry has ancient roots in oral cultures and classical literatures. In the Western tradition, it includes Greek epic and lyric poetry, Latin versification, medieval courtly poetry, the Renaissance and Romantic celebrations of individual expression, and modern and contemporary practices such as imagism, symbolism, and experimental language. Non-Western poetries have long-standing forms as well, including Chinese shi, Persian ghazal, Sanskrit śloka, and Japanese haiku.

French poetry and influence: The term poésie is central to French literary tradition, with figures such as François Villon, Pierre de Ronsard, Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Paul Valéry contributing to the theory and practice of poetic craft. French poets have influenced the development of rhythm, metaphor, and poetics worldwide.

Significance: Poetry remains a core cultural activity, studied in education, valued for its aesthetic and interpretive richness, and performed in readings, publications, and digital media.