Poetry is one of the powerful stuffs of any literature. It is the most ancient part among all the literary works. So, to get an authentic and complete touch of literature, there is no other way but to interfere into the realm of poetry. People since time immemorial, has been endeavoring their thought through poetry. In ancient Greece, Plato wanted to oust the poets from the society for their fantastic thinking instead of practical. However, it could not be possible as poetry surmounted all the barriers with its emphatic force of diversification, amplitude, depth of impact and above all, a parallel series of moral belief, ethical notion and social picturization.
Poetry has a significant role on society. From the ancient time till the recent, taking its responsibilities upon shoulders, Poetry denotes an influential pedestal among other genres of literature. For example, of ancient time, poems like “The Dream of the Roods”, “The Seafarer”, “The Wanderer”; or of medieval period, “The Canterbury Tales” or of Victorian era, Tennyson’s “Tithonus”, or of Romantic Period, W. Wordsworth’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”; or of Metaphysical era, A. Marvell’s “The Definition of Love”, ; or of Modern Period, T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” etc.— have great implications. These poems deal sometimes with all the (socio-economic, cultural, political, religious etc.) conditions, or the self experience of grievances or ecstasy of the narrator/ protagonist; or ethical beliefs fused with religion or apart from religion; or the passion for the beloved/ lover; or the committed sin of the people & its redemption through rational solution; or the perish or survival after facing the reality or fate; or the future guided by fate or activity of that very time. The reader of these poems can easily come to know about the exact condition reflected in the poetry of that particular era.
Poetry has sometimes followed or deviated from its orthodox notion of rhyme, meter, and lines. It has turned into epic (Homer’s Iliad, or Milton’s Paradise Lost, for example), elegy (“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” for example), sonnets (of William Shakespeare, for example) etc. Poetry has used alliteration, metaphor, simile, personification, symbol, imagery etc. according to the taste of the poet or the demand of the time. Poetry has told a lot of things of human civilization and it has a lot more things to say.
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“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness in the desert air”