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Senryu is a Japanese poetic form that is similar to the haiku, though its aim is often satirical and its composition is often collaborative. At California’s Tule Lake Segregation Center, interred citizens met to write senryu together, often composing verse that criticized their surroundings.
The Irish poet and 1923 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature laid out his beliefs in a 1901 essay, entitled "Magic," and was a member of several organizations dedicated to occult and mystical practices.
Dickinson scholars have collected her recipes for gingerbread, doughnuts, and more, noting that she often wrote poems on the backs of them. The Emily Dickinson Museum says that the kitchen “was a space of creative ferment for her, and that the writing of poetry mixed in her life with the making of delicate treats.”
Whitman's collection was banned numerous times in various cities through the 1800s; in Boston, the district attorney even threatened Whitman’s publisher with criminal prosecution.
Beyond his famous plays, Shakespeare penned 154 sonnets, including the well-known romantic ode “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” He also wrote two long poems as well as several minor pieces.
"Poetry and imagination begin life."
The Renaissance writer Petrarch first developed the 14-line poem with a two-part structure. Through English translations of his sonnets by Sir Thomas Wyatt in the 1500s, the form took on new life, particularly through Shakespeare. Variations on the form have continued to evolve since.
Early hip-hop featured straightforward meter and rhyme, with rappers generally following the beat and using rhyming couplets in the style of nursery rhymes. MCs like Rakim, though, began pushing the limits of the form through varied stresses and dynamic, multisyllabic slant rhymes.
Whitman first published his seminal poetry collection “Leaves of Grass” in 1855, but he continued revising it until he died in 1892, publishing six different versions during his lifetime.
Francis Scott Key’s version features four verses, though only one is usually performed. American poet Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote an additional fifth verse during the Civil War, lamenting the country’s internal division.