What is a Poem?

The way of expression of your experience through your thoughts.

The collection of variety of poems of well known Poets.

Revealing your thoughts

What is Poem?

Well,  a poem is an instance of  'Poetry' and 'poetry is a variety of literature; the other varieties being non fictional prose, fiction - a short story and the novel - drama and literary criticism.

we say 'poem' is an example of poetic expression. The Oxford English Dictionary calls poetry 'expression of beautiful or elevated thought, imagination or feeling in appropriate language and usually in metrical form'.

we also have prose poems which have all the qualities of a poetry except metre.

The Grammar of Poetry - Prosody, Metre, Scansion

Prosody is that of grammar which deals with laws governing the structure of verse. It encompasses the study of all the elements of langauge that contribute towards acoustic or rhythmic effects, chiefly in poetry but also in prose.

Metre measures the rhythm of a line of verse. The metre words derives from the Greek word metron means 'measure'.

Scansion is to look intently at all parts successively. When a unit of verse - a foot, a line or a stanza - is scanned with the help of symbols the metre can be seen as well as heard.

Rhyme and Rhythm in Poetry

A verse is a compressed and regularly rhythmic form of statement and different from a prose.

Factors like

Alliteration - a use of several nearby words or stressed syllables beginning with the same consonant.

Assonance - the repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds usually in accented syllables.

Consonance - the repetition of a pattern of consonants with changes in the intervening vowels such as in linger, longer, languor.

Onomatopoeia - which is direct verbal imitation of natural sounds.