A special day glorified by the world of literature is the world poetry day.It is celebrated on 21st March every year .It was initiated in 1999 by UNESCO in their 30th session held in Paris.
‘Poetry’ one of the treasured traditional culture plays a prominent role in every phase of life. It comes from a Greek word ‘Poiein’ meaning to’make/ create’ . Poetry is an universal language with different tastes interpreted by man of colours. There are variety kind of poetries like ballads, sonnets, lays, epics, idylls, haikus,free verses ,poems with rythm , poems with poetic devices etc . Poetry is a way of expressing a language with connected words of charm and beauty mixed with soulful emotions and feelings. The elements of poetry reflects happiness, grief, grudges, relations, all emotions,state of mind and everything.Poetry is a common expression of shared humanity and values .
It helps to display the ancient lives, cultures and events clearly with limited number of words. It is a culture with a rich history dating back to hunting poetry in Africa to court poetry of empires of Nile, Niger etc . The history had a lot of cherished moments which are described flawlessly through poetries . Poetry is a magic which expresses different shades of life and obviously it is a wonderful product of human imagination.
The objectives for recognising world poetry day is:
🔷To support the diversity of languages.
🔷To revive endangered languages .
🔷To return to the oral tradition of poetry .
🔷To connect Poetry with various art forms like painting, theatre, music ,dramas etc.
🔷To encourage writing and reading of poetries.
🔷To build up young poets and mushrooming talents.
🔷To honour poets and conserve the tradition.
“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and thought has found words” . These words of Robert Frost clearly expresses how closely the poetry is connected to the human souls. Back in history there were great events when poetry was a sacred kind of languages for ancient communities. Poetry was even a wonderful political motivator. Great poets like Shakespeare of England, Allama Iqbal of Pakistan , Mehmet Akif Ersoy of Turkey, Rabindranath Tagore of India enriched the nation with philosophical understandings .
Poets like Edmund Blunden , Maya Angelo also played a great role to stop and potray colonisation and work war. Poetries like ballads were so popular in the past since it narrated the stories of courage of the braves from place to place. Poetry even contributed in the growth of several languages like Latin, Arabic, Chinese etc. Apart from these the role of poetry in our life is inevitable.It expresses what our mind thinks and what our soul dreams.
The benefits of writing or reading poetries are:
◾Helpy to heal emotional pain
◾Helpy to understand you and your surroundings better.
◾ Creates self awareness and self reflection.
◾ Enhances self analysis.
◾ Improves vocabulary .
◾ Builds a skill of critical thinking.
◾ Develops empathy.
◾ Cultivates robust base in knowledge in the field of literature.
◾ Induces a wish and confidence to express and open yourself.
◾ Triggers emotions and powerful thoughts.
Moreover it helps us to celebrate every minute things!!
From the words of poet Shelley “Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of world and makes familiar objects to be as if they were not familiar”, these lines make a sense when we understand the core beauty of the art of poetry.
Thus poetry has a potential to change every distorted things in the world to the most wonderful things. Again in future like in the past poetry plays an important role in the enlightenment and development of the world. It can pass the tales of valour , emotions ,historical events , circumstances , positive thoughts and ideas to the successors without losing its glow and true meaning.
The global community thus should hold together their hands to celebrate this wonderful day .Programs and events like talking about favourite poets and poems, poetry contest , recitations , workshops can be done to conserve the soul of the highest form of literature ‘ poetry’ and as an initiative to raise and promote the current generation’s young sprouting poets .To conclude let’s celebrate world poetry day as “poetry is a skill which moves us still….!!!!”
