Apoet is a person who studies and createspoetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thinker,songwriter,writer, orauthor) who creates (composes) poems (oral orwritten), or they may alsoperform their art to anaudience.
The work of a poet is essentially one of communication, expressing ideas either in a literal sense (such as communicating about a specific event or place) ormetaphorically. Poets have existed sinceprehistory, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary greatly in different cultures and periods.[1] Throughout eachcivilization and language, poets have used various styles that have changed over time, resulting in countless poets as diverse as theliterature that (since the advent ofwriting systems) they have produced.
TheStory of Sinuhe was a popular narrative poem from theMiddle Kingdom of Egypt, writtenc. 1750 BC, about an ancient Egyptian man namedSinuhe, who flees his country and lives in a foreign land until his return, shortly before his death. The Story of Sinuhe was one of several popular narrative poems inAncient Egyptian. Scholars have conjectured that Story of Sinuhe was actually written by an Ancient Egyptian man named Sinuhe, describing his life in the poem; therefore, Sinuhe is conjectured to be a real person.[citation needed]
During theHigh Middle Ages,troubadors were an important class of poets. They came from a variety of backgrounds, often living and traveling in many different places and were looked upon as actors or musicians as much as poets. Some were under patronage, but many traveled extensively.[citation needed]
In theRomantic period and onwards, many poets were independent writers who made their living through their work, often supplemented by income from other occupations or from family.[3] This included poets such asWilliam Wordsworth andRobert Burns.
Poets held an important position in pre-Islamic Arabic society with the poet orsha'ir filling the role of historian,soothsayer and propagandist. Words in praise of the tribe (qit'ah) and lampoons denigrating other tribes (hija') seem to have been some of the most popular forms of early poetry. Thesha'ir represented an individual tribe's prestige and importance in theArabian Peninsula, and mock battles in poetry orzajal would stand in lieu of real wars. 'Ukaz, a market town not far fromMecca, would play host to a regular poetry festival where the craft of thesha'irs would be exhibited.[citation needed]
Poets of earlier times were often well read and highly educated people while others were to a large extent self-educated. A few poets such asJohn Gower andJohn Milton were able to write poetry in more than one language. Some Portuguese poets, asFrancisco de Sá de Miranda, wrote not only in Portuguese but also in Spanish.[4]Jan Kochanowski wrote in Polish and in Latin,[5]France Prešeren andKarel Hynek Mácha[6] wrote some poems in German, although they were poets of Slovenian and Czech respectively.Adam Mickiewicz, the greatest poet of Polish language, wrote a Latin ode for emperorNapoleon III. Another example isJerzy Pietrkiewicz, a Polish poet. When he moved to Great Britain, he ceased to write poetry in Polish, but started writing a novel in English.[7] He also translated poetry into English.
Many universities offer degrees in creative writing though these only came into existence in the 20th century. While these courses are not necessary for a career as a poet, they can be helpful as training, and for giving the student several years of time focused on their writing.[8]
Lyrical poets who write sacred poetry ("hymnographers") differ from the usual image of poets in a number of ways. A hymnographer such asIsaac Watts who wrote 700 poems in his lifetime, may have their lyrics sung by millions of people every Sunday morning, but are not always included inanthologies of poetry. Because hymns are perceived of as "worship" rather than "poetry", the term "artistic kenosis" is sometimes used to describe the hymnographer's success in "emptying out" the instinct to succeed as a poet. A singer in the pew might have several of Watts's stanzas memorized, without ever knowing his name or thinking of him as a poet.
Reginald Gibbons (ed),The Poet's Work: 29 poets on the origins and practice of their art. University of Chicago Press (1979).ISBN978-0-226-29054-6at Google Books
