Poetry. What is it? Have you ever wondered what makes a poem a poem? Poetry is a very broad genre of writing. Because of this, it is quite tricky to come up with one definition of what poetry actually is. Basically, poetry is a form of imaginative writing. People write poetry to express thoughts and feelings about something in a creative way. The purpose of poetry is to engage and excite the imagination of the reader, or to stir a particular emotional response within them. Poets do this by carefully choosing and arranging language for its meaning, sound and rhythm. The elements of poetry are the tools that poets use when writing poems. Some poems may contain all these elements, whereas others may only contain some of them. Some of the elements of poetry include structure, rhythm, rhyme, sound devices and figurative language. Poems can be long or short, funny or sad, structured or unstructured. Some poems such as nursery rhymes are simple and humorous. Other poems may try to express some truth about life, tell a story, or even honour a person. Do you know that there are over 50 different types of poetry? Most people are familiar with limericks and acrostic poems, but other popular types include sonnets, hikus, free verse, sincans, oeds and balance. Let's recap what we've looked at so far. Poetry allows people to express their thoughts and feelings about something in a creative way. Poets use elements of poetry such as structure, rhythm, rhyme, sound devices and figurative language to make their poems engaging and interesting. And there are many different types of poetry. If you liked this video on poetry, hit the like button and leave a comment below. Thanks for watching!