A poet is a person who creates
poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be a
writer of poetry, or may perform their art to an audience.
thumb|200px|Postmortal fictional portrait of Slovak poet Janko Kráľ (1822–1876) – an idealized romanticized picture of "how a real poet should look" in Western culture.
The work of a poet is essentially one of communication, either expressing ideas in a literal sense, such as writing about a specific event or place, or metaphorically. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary greatly in different cultures and periods.
Throughout each
civilization and language, poets have used various styles that have changed through the course of literary history, resulting in a history of poets as diverse as the literature they have produced.
thumb|200px|The Italian Giacomo Leopardi was mentioned by the University of Birmingham as "one of the most radical and challenging of nineteenth-century thinkers".
History
In
Ancient Rome, professional poets were generally sponsored by
patrons, wealthy supporters including nobility and military officials. For instance,
Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, friend to
Caesar Augustus, was an important patron for the Augustan poets, including both
Horace and
Virgil. While
Ovid , a well established poet, was banished from Rome by the first
Augustus.
Poets held an important position in pre-Islamic Arabic society with the poet or ''
sha'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. The ''sha'ir'' represented an individual tribe's prestige and importance in the
Arabian peninsula, and mock battles in poetry or ''
zajal'' would stand in lieu of real wars. 'Ukaz, a market town not far from
Mecca, would play host to a regular poetry festival where the craft of the ''sha'irs'' would be exhibited.
In the
High Middle Ages,
troubadors were an important class of poets and came from a variety of backgrounds. They lived and travelled in many different places and were looked upon as actors or musicians as much as poets. They were often under patronage, but many travelled extensively.
The
Renaissance period saw a continuation of patronage of poets by royalty. Many poets, however, had other sources of income, including
Italians like
Dante Aligheri,
Giovanni Boccaccio and
Petrarch's works in a pharmacist's guild and
William Shakespeare's work in the theater.
In the
Romantic 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. This included poets such as
William Wordsworth and
Robert Burns.
Poets such as
Virgil in the
Aeneid and
John Milton in
Paradise Lost invoked the aid of a
Muse.
Education
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 as
John Gower and
John Milton were able to write poetry in more than one language. Some Portuguese poets, as
Francisco de Sá de Miranda, wrote not only in Portuguese but also in Spanish.
Jan Kochanowski wrote in Polish and in Latin,
France Prešeren and
Karel Hynek Mácha 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 emperor
Napoleon III. Another example is
Jerzy Pietrkiewicz, a Polish poet. When he moved to Great Britain, he ceased to write poetry in Polish, but started writing novel in English. He also translated poetry from English and 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.
[Nikki Moustaki (2001), ''The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Poetry'', Penguin.]
Poets of sacred verse
Lyrical poets who write sacred poetry ("
hymnographers") differ from the usual image of poets in a number of ways. A hymnographer such as
Isaac 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 in
anthologies 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.
See also
*
List of poets
*
Bard
*
Lyricist
References
Further reading
* Reginald Gibbons (ed), ''The Poet's Work: 29 poets on the origins and practice of their art''. University of Chicago Press (1979).
at Google Books
External links
{{Authority control
Category:Occupations in literature