Poem In Your Pocket Day – April 29, 2027

History of Poem In Your Pocket Day

Poetry goes back to the days before humans knew how to pen down words. The first poems are believed to have been spoken words, and passed down through oral tradition. The earliest poetry exists in the form of hymns and chants. Most of the oldest surviving poetry is religious, such as prayers or stories about religiously significant events; other surviving poetry recounts historical events, instructions for activities, and even declarations of love. Historians today hold that the earliest instances of written poetry suggest the existence of older oral traditions.

Poetry sprung up across the globe at several points in time. In Africa, for example, the art dates back to prehistoric times, when people wrote poetry in the river valleys of the Nile and Niger as well as the Volta River. Some of the earliest poetry in the region is from the “Pyramid Texts” written as early as the 25th century B.C. The first-ever speculative fiction poem is believed to be the “Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor,” which was composed in Hieratic around 2500 B.C. Other scholars believe that “The Epic of Gilgamesh” is the oldest composition of this kind. Aside from these two, other poems counted among the oldest are the Greek “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” along with the Sanskrit “Mahabharata” and “Ramayana.” “Mahabharata” has been considered the longest poem ever written.

The nature of poetry has evolved over the years, and many structural traditions and literary movements have come and gone. Today, poetry exists in many forms, from song lyrics to stanzas of freeform, postmodern poems.