poetry

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Literature composed in verse or language exhibiting conscious attention to patterns and rhythm.

   More people write poetry than read it.

2. 2
   noun

   An artistic quality that appeals to or evokes the emotions, in any medium; something having such a quality.

   That 'Swan Lake' choreography is poetry in motion, fitting the musical poetry of Tchaikovski's divine score well beyond the literary inspiration.

3. 3
   noun

   literature in metrical form

4. 4
   noun

   any communication resembling poetry in beauty or the evocation of feeling

5. 5
   noun

   A poet's literary production.

Etymology

From Middle English poetrye, poetrie, a borrowing from Old French pöeterie, pöetrie, from Medieval Latin poētria, from poēta (“poet”), from Ancient Greek ποιητής (poiētḗs, “poet; author; maker”). Displaced native Old English lēoþcræft.