Definitions: (1) possessing the peculiar beauties of harmony; sublime rhythm; (2) imaginative; (3) language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm; written or spoken word formulating a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience
Comment: All poetry is communicative; some is popular and some is evocative. Whatever is wonderful and good can be fused with culture. Words are a way to touch many people at once.
Quote: Diotima now describes how mortals strive for immortality. In all begetting and bringing forth upon the beautiful, there is a kind of making or poiesis (“poetry” in the wide sense of “creating”). In this genesis there is a movement beyond the temporal cycle of birth and decay. “Such a movement can occur in three kinds of poiesis: 1) Natural poiesis through sexual procreation, 2) poiesis in the city through the attainment of heroic fame, and finally 3) poiesis in the soul through the cultivation of virtue and knowledge.” — Plato (428-328 bc) Symposium
Symbol: words
Historic Figures: 1) Homer (c. 8th Century BC) The Father of Epic Poetry; 2) Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–1400) The Father of English Poetry
Mythological Figures: 1) Erato, the Muse who presided over lyric poetry; 2) Bragi, the Scandinavian god of eloquence and poetry; 3) Calliope, Greek and Roman Muse of eloquence and heroic poetry