World Poetry Day is celebrated on

21 March Events Pre-1600 * 537 – Siege of Rome: King Vitiges attempts to assault the northern and eastern city walls, but is repulsed at the Praenestine Gate, known as the ''Vivarium'', by the defenders under the Byzantine generals Bessas and ...

, and was declared by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

(the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1999, "with the aim of supporting

linguistic diversity Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for

endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

s to be heard". Its purpose is to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

throughout the world and, as the original UNESCO declaration says, to "give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and international poetry movements". It was generally celebrated in October, but in the 20th century the world community celebrated it on the 15th, the birthday of

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

, the Roman

epic poet An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. ...

and poet laureate under

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

. The tradition to keep an October date for national or international poetry day celebrations still holds in many countries. The United Kingdom generally uses the first Thursday in October, but elsewhere a different October, or even sometimes a November date, is celebrated. WorldPoetryDay UNESCO has it on calendar because

PEN International PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...

had officially proposed it upon Tarık Günersel’s presentation at the '97 Congress in Edinburgh -as suggested by PEN Turkey and seconded by Melbourne PEN. (In '96 initiated by Tarık Günersel and Gülseli Inal et al -Poetic Space Lab) The 2021 World Poetry Day in the UNESCO headquarters in Paris was dedicated to the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Macedonian poet, writer,

literary translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

and linguistic scholar

Blaže Koneski Blaže Koneski ( mk, Блаже Конески; 19 December 1921 – 7 December 1993) was a Macedonian poet, writer, literary translator, and linguistic scholar. His major contribution was to the codification of standard Macedonian. He is the key ...

. At the same time, the British poet

Carol Ann Duffy Dame Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, resigning in 2019. She was the first ...

was announced as the recipient of the Golden Wreath Award of the

Struga Poetry Evenings Struga Poetry Evenings (SPE) ( mk, Струшки вечери на поезијата, СВП; tr. ''Struški večeri na poezijata'', ''SVP'') is an international poetry festival held annually in Struga, North Macedonia. During the several de ...

for 2021.

References

External links

Kavishala -The School of Poets"World Poetry Day, 21 March" at un.orgUN International Observances Calendar"Jaipur Based Young Poets Celebrated World Poetry Day on 21 March 2017 at O2 The Plant Cafe"
March observances Poetry festivals Poetry Day, World UNESCO {{Observance-stub

See also

References

External links