Poetry has been used, recited, written by people for as long as humanity has known itself, and while its technical definition may be that its a form of literary expression characterized by its use of carefully chosen words, structured rhythms, and often, creative and artistic language coupled by reasonably placed successive lines of literature, which are called stanzas, it more often than not transcends these base assumptions. For instance, poetry accomplishes far more in conveying with far fewer words than is preferred in prose, and the implications of it extend to the heightened depth of the desired effect on the audience, or the reader, as well.

Sharing many attributes with the very same language that begets itself, it not only talks about things to describe them as would be in the domain of pure language, but poetry most importantly utilises language to create embodied experiences.  To define what poetry is, one must start by describing the aspects that make it necessary.

Throughout the ages, there is one thing, among others, that has stayed constant: man had to express what he felt, therefore experienced and thought, and therefore who he is. And the decision to use the word “expression” is a deliberate one; people do not merely want to record what they live through and experience; they have invariably preferred to convey to their social circles not only what has been but what has it been “like” to them, at which point it can very well be seen as an outlet of emotion and personal interpretation of the environment, be it coming from the inner world of a person or what’s there on the terrain in general.

As this conveying of experiences is done through describing personal experiences or the known experiences of a whole, they are reorganized to the poet’s liking and presented to the reader to either broaden or deepen his experience of life.

As expected, there is a certain order to the execution of this that has been developed over time. This order involves carefully selecting and arranging words, phrases, and imagery to create a specific mood or atmosphere. Additionally, poets often employ various literary devices such as metaphors, similes, and symbolism to enhance the impact of their work. By skillfully manipulating language and crafting their poems with precision, poets are able to evoke powerful emotions and provoke thought in their readers.

Poetry enables one to imaginatively use these devices and mechanisms, often associating actions with the symbolic frames humans use to memorise them unconsciously, such as when a shepherd boy is pictured simply blowing his nails, referring to the complex cause and effect relationship that occurs in a sequential feeling of cold and relatively hot air coming out of the mouth to warm the fingers, not necessarily the nails, as said: the frame humans see of the essence, not what exactly happens. (Taken from Laurence Perrine, Sound and Sense)

“[…]my novel is ephemeral, it only has its unread status to defend itself against a world of speed and disposability.”

– A modified version of mine from a line in Le Petit Prince, underlining the fading genre that is the novel.

For the closing statements of this exhaustive analysis, poetry was the thing before the novel, the popular genre that talked to people and the people talked back to it. Poetry’s moral and social functions gradually pass over to the novel. In the end, the novel takes care of the outside world while poetry copes with the inside.

(Some parts of this last paragraph may also have been enriched by the author’s choice of material and the general points of their arguments but exact names and publishers have been lost to time, do excuse me.)