Poetry is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition or instead of its ostensible meaning. Poetry has a long history, and early attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the various uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts focused on the deliberate use of features such as repetition and rhyme and the emphasis on aesthetics to distinguish poetry from prose. Specific forms of poetry have become traditional within and across different cultures and genres, and often respond to underlying characteristics of the language in which poetry is created. Each language's richness in rhyme and method of creating timing and tonal differences provides distinct opportunities for poets writing in that language. While those accustomed to identifying poetry with Shakespeare, Dante and Goethe may understand poetry by reference primarily to rhyming lines and regular accentual meter, other traditions, such as those of Du Fu and Beowulf, use other methods to achieve rhythm and euphony. In today's globalized world, poets often borrow styles, techniques and forms by different cultures and languages.

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Poetry".