Here's a question, or should I say a whole series of them, as posed by one of our readers in response to the comments thread resulting from Richard King's review of papertiger 2.
Janae asks a) when was poetry invented? b) why? and c) by whom?
That should get your trivia juices flowing. Let's hope we receive as many responses to these burning questions as we did when we asked for a collective noun for poets!
Oh and thanks Janae for your bravery in coming forward. I'm sorry I can't be of more help myself – as far as I can tell, it was the Generation of 68 who invented poetry in, erm, 1968. As to why, I'm at a loss.
Can anybody help?
6 [Archived] Responses to ?Who invented poetry??
handel Says:November 18th, 2003 at 1:28 pm
poets invented poetry
angry penguin Says:
November 19th, 2003 at 4:13 pm
o-or was it the other way round?
Ivy Says:
November 20th, 2003 at 5:03 am
While not being able to answer 'who, we may be able to find out 'why. A certain ms. hummburger has this to say: poetry sucks crap. it was invented so that people had something to talk about. if it wasn't invented then we would not be able to talk about anything besides how the weather was.
TB Lee Says:
November 24th, 2003 at 6:07 pm
Poetry, invented by?
Does it matter? That Poetry exists is invention enough.
adrian Says:
November 26th, 2003 at 1:57 pm
I think it was a mail order firm in Michigan. [apologies to Douglas Adams]
Amber Says:
February 5th, 2004 at 11:18 am
Poetry is awsome because it lets people express there self and it also gives people hobbies.
as instresting as some of the replys have been they havent been of any use to me in my study of how poetry came about.. i hope you can get some more serious answers so that it can help me in my studys but your all right poetry does rock …
poetry is a good way to express yourself. Instead of telling someone your feelings write a poem. It works for me you should try it sometime soon!
this did not help me at all ill make sure i never come here again you guys should get more serious i have research paper due and no answers to my questions yet you guys should [expletive deleted - w/e]
Hi fer,
There's a pretty comprehensive overview of the history of poetry and poetics at the Online Dictionary of the History of Ideas – check out this link:
http://etext.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv3-66
It's such a big question being asked that I'm not surprised some of the poets here couldn't resist cracking a few jokes, but they didn't mean any harm by it I'm sure.
Hi fer,
While Adam is being very helpful by pointing you in the right direction, surely as a serious student you might have at least looked at the date of this post – 2003 – and asked yourself whether you're likely to find your answers here. I'm sorry, but we don't tolerate the kind of language or attitude expressed in your comment. You might consider an alternative to Google the next time you do your research as well. But then, you're not coming back here anyway, so this is all pretty pointless.
well said davey.
part of my job involves answering obvious questions that come via email, so I'm kind of used to dealing with folks who want the answers given to them and are unwilling to actually look for themselves, and so click on whatever google result takes their fancy and ask their question whether or not it's appropriate to the website they randomly land on.
There will always be lazy students more willing to put more energy into bitching and moaning than they will into actual research.
Poetry was produced by the inventors of apple juice to quench our thirst – I'm almost certain.
I like your style, Joyce. Poetry as cider. Nice.