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Do not fill this in! ===Early works=== Some scholars believe that the art of poetry may predate [[literacy]], and developed from folk [[epic poetry|epics]] and other oral genres.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1= Höivik |first1= Susan |last2= Luger |first2=Kurt |date= 3 June 2009 |title= Folk Media for Biodiversity Conservation: A Pilot Project from the Himalaya-Hindu Kush |journal= International Communication Gazette |volume=71 |issue=4 |pages=321–346 |doi= 10.1177/1748048509102184|s2cid= 143947520}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last= Goody |first=Jack | author-link=Jack Goody |url= https://archive.org/details/interfacebetween00good |title= The Interface Between the Written and the Oral |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year= 1987 |isbn= 978-0-521-33794-6 |page= [https://archive.org/details/interfacebetween00good/page/78 78] |quote= [...] poetry, tales, recitations of various kinds existed long before writing was introduced and these oral forms continued in modified 'oral' forms, even after the establishment of a written literature. |url-access= registration}}</ref> Others, however, suggest that poetry did not necessarily predate writing.<ref name="Goody, Jack 1987 98">{{Cite book |last= Goody |first=Jack |url= https://archive.org/details/interfacebetween00good |title= The Interface Between the Written and the Oral |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year= 1987 |isbn= 978-0-521-33794-6 |page= [https://archive.org/details/interfacebetween00good/page/98 98] |url-access= registration}}</ref> The oldest surviving epic poem, the ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]'', dates from the 3rd millennium{{nbsp}}BCE in [[Sumer]] (in [[Mesopotamia]], present-day [[Iraq]]), and was written in [[cuneiform]] script on clay tablets and, later, on [[papyrus]].<ref>{{Cite book |translator-last= Sanders | translator-first=N. K. | translator-link=Nancy Sandars |title= The Epic of Gilgamesh |publisher= Penguin Books |year= 1972 |edition= Revised |pages= 7–8}}</ref> The [[Istanbul 2461|Istanbul tablet#2461]], dating to {{circa}}{{nbsp}}2000{{nbsp}}BCE, describes an annual rite in which the king [[Hieros gamos|symbolically married]] and mated with the goddess [[Inanna]] to ensure fertility and prosperity; some have labelled it the world's oldest love poem.<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://www.worldhistory.org/article/750/ |title= The World's Oldest Love Poem |last= Mark |first=Joshua J. |date= 13 August 2014 |quote= '[...] What I held in my hand was one of the oldest love songs written down by the hand of man [...].'}}</ref><ref name="oldest_poem">{{Cite news |last= Arsu |first= Şebnem |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/international/europe/14poem.html?_r=0 |title= Oldest Line in the World |access-date= 1 May 2015 |work= The New York Times|date= 14 February 2006 |quote= A small tablet in a special display this month in the Istanbul Museum of the Ancient Orient is thought to be the oldest love poem ever found, the words of a lover from more than 4,000 years ago.}}</ref> An example of Egyptian epic poetry is [[Story of Sinuhe|''The Story of Sinuhe'']] (c. 1800 BCE).<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Chyla |first1=Julia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6u4mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA159 |title=Current Research in Egyptology 17 |last2=Rosińska-Balik |first2=Karolina |last3=Debowska-Ludwin |first3=Joanna |date=2017 |publisher=Oxbow Books |isbn=978-1-78570-603-5 |pages=159–161 |language=en}}</ref> Other ancient epics includes the Greek ''[[Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Odyssey]]''; the Persian [[Avestan]] books (the ''[[Yasna]]''); the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] [[national epic]], [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'' (written between 29 and 19 BCE); and the [[Indian epic poetry|Indian epics]], the ''[[Ramayana]]'' and the ''[[Mahabharata]]''. Epic poetry appears to have been composed in poetic form as an aid to memorization and oral transmission in ancient societies.<ref name="Goody, Jack 1987 98" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1= Ahl |first1=Frederick |url= https://archive.org/details/odysseyreformed00ahlf |title= The Odyssey Re-Formed |last2= Roisman |first2=Hanna M. |publisher= Cornell University Press |year= 1996 |isbn= 978-0-8014-8335-6 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/odysseyreformed00ahlf/page/1 1–26] |url-access= registration}}.</ref> Other forms of poetry, including such ancient collections of religious [[hymn]]s as the Indian [[Sanskrit]]-language ''[[Rigveda]]'', the Avestan [[Gatha (Zoroaster)|''Gathas'']], the ''[[Hurrian songs]]'', and the Hebrew ''[[Psalms]]'', possibly developed directly from [[folk song]]s. The earliest entries in the oldest extant collection of [[Chinese poetry]], the ''[[Classic of Poetry]]'' (''Shijing''), were initially [[lyrics]].<ref name="Ebrey">{{Cite book |last=Ebrey |first=Patricia |author-link=Patricia Buckley Ebrey |url=https://archive.org/details/chinesecivilizat00patr/page/11 |title=Chinese Civilisation: A Sourcebook |publisher=The Free Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-02-908752-7 |edition=2nd |pages=[https://archive.org/details/chinesecivilizat00patr/page/11 11–13]}}</ref> The Shijing, with its collection of poems and folk songs, was heavily valued by the philosopher [[Confucius]] and is considered to be one of the official [[Four Books and Five Classics|Confucian classics]]. His remarks on the subject have become an invaluable source in [[Music theory#China|ancient music theory]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cai|first=Zong-qi|title=In Quest of Harmony: Plato and Confucius on Poetry|journal=Philosophy East and West|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1399898|date=July 1999|volume=49|issue=3|pages=317–345|doi=10.2307/1399898|jstor=1399898}}</ref> The efforts of ancient thinkers to determine what makes poetry distinctive as a form, and what distinguishes good poetry from bad, resulted in "[[poetics]]"—the study of the aesthetics of poetry.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abondolo |first=Daniel |title=A poetics handbook: verbal art in the European tradition |publisher=Curzon |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-7007-1223-6 |pages=52–53}}</ref> Some ancient societies, such as China's through the ''Shijing'', developed canons of poetic works that had ritual as well as aesthetic importance.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gentz |first=Joachim |title=Text and Ritual in Early China |publisher=University of Washington Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-295-98787-3 |editor-last=Kern |editor-first=Martin |pages=124–148 |chapter=Ritual Meaning of Textual Form: Evidence from Early Commentaries of the Historiographic and Ritual Traditions}}</ref> More recently, thinkers have struggled to find a definition that could encompass formal differences as great as those between Chaucer's [[The Canterbury Tales|''Canterbury Tales'']] and [[Matsuo Bashō]]'s ''[[Oku no Hosomichi]]'', as well as differences in content spanning [[Hebrew Bible|Tanakh]] [[Biblical poetry|religious poetry]], love poetry, and [[rapping|rap]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Habib |first=Rafey |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofliterar0000habi/page/607 |title=A history of literary criticism |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-631-23200-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofliterar0000habi/page/607 607–609, 620]}}</ref> Until recently, the earliest examples of [[stressed poetry]] had been thought to be works composed by [[Romanos the Melodist]] (''fl.'' 6th century CE). However, [[Tim Whitmarsh]] writes that an inscribed Greek poem predated Romanos' stressed poetry. <ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.archaeology.org/issues/459-2203/digs/10346-digs-roman-stressed-meter-poetry |title= Poetic License |author= Jarrett A. Lobell |date= March-April 2022 |website= Archaeology Magazine |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207005404/https://www.archaeology.org/issues/459-2203/digs/10346-digs-roman-stressed-meter-poetry |archive-date= Dec 7, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/08/i-dont-care-text-shows-modern-poetry-began-much-earlier-than-believed |title= 'I don't care': text shows modern poetry began much earlier than believed |author= Alison Flood |date= September 8, 2021 |website=The Guardian |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240118071914/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/08/i-dont-care-text-shows-modern-poetry-began-much-earlier-than-believed |archive-date= Jan 18, 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title= Less Care, More Stress: A Rythmyic Poem From the Romas Empire |s2cid-access=free |author= Tim Whitmarsh |date= August 2021 |journal= The Cambridge Classical Journal|volume= 67 |pages= 135–163 |doi= 10.1017/S1750270521000051 |s2cid= 242230189 |doi-access= free }}</ref> <gallery mode="packed" heights="220"> File:The oldest love poem. Sumerian terracotta tablet from Nippur, Iraq. Ur III period, 2037-2029 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul.jpg|The oldest known love poem. Sumerian [[Istanbul 2461|terracotta tablet#2461]] from Nippur, Iraq. Ur III period, 2037–2029 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul File:Confucius the scholar.jpg|The philosopher [[Confucius]] was influential in the developed approach to poetry and [[Music theory#China|ancient music theory]]. File:Manuscript from Shanghai Museum 1.jpg|An early Chinese [[poetics]], the ''Kǒngzǐ Shīlùn'' (孔子詩論), discussing the [[Classic of Poetry|''Shijing'']] (''Classic of Poetry'') </gallery> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). 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