Poetry: World Poetry

From The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Latino Literature
The late 1960s and early 1970s were a time of intellectual ferment and rebellion in the United States. Caught up in the unrest, young Mexican Americans throughout the country sought a new identity while struggling for the same civil rights of previous generations. MORE

From The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Contemp. Chinese poets have a conception of poetry much in common with the view held by their compatriots in other countries, so to use the term Chinese poetry may seem at first unproblematic. But before the mod. period, Chinese writers employed no single term that embraced all traditional forms of verse; they referred instead to individual genres.

From Concise Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature
The very designation “guerrilla poetry” raises difficult questions of definition. There was a generation of young people who became revolutionary guerrillas during the 1960s and 1970s; many of them were poets, though their work did not necessarily arise directly out of their experiences of armed struggle. MORE

From The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
This account treats poetry written in Japan by those racially Japanese on the main archipelago. That is, it excludes Ainu and Ryukyuan poetry and Japanese composition in Chinese. This is the usual implicit, limited definition. MORE

From The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
The poetry sung, recited, or written in the Judeo-Sp. (Judezmo, Ladino) dialect, in the various post-diasporic sanctuaries of the Sephardic Jews—North Africa (Morocco, Algeria) and the Eastern Mediterranean (the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, Israel)—after their exile from Spain in 1492. MORE

From The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
The lyric impulse in North Am. Indian cultures is rich, diverse, and persistent. MORE

From The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
The birth of Rus. literature may be traced to the 11th century, but written texts in verse (i.e. characterized by rhyme and rhythm) first made their appearance relatively late, in the 17th c. By contrast, Rus. folklore, which obviously predated recorded literary texts, in certain genres had always been framed in verse. MORE

From Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English
The origins of South African poetry in English are usually traced to the 1820s. MORE

From The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Taken literally, G. p. is the name for poetic compositions, anonymous or otherwise, which deal with the life and adventures of the Argentinean cowboy. It would be a mistake to apply the same denomination to all popular poetry produced in Sp. America. MORE

Nigerian writer, b. Albert Chinualumogu Achebe. A graduate of University College at Ibadan (1953), Achebe, an Igbo who writes in English, is one of Africa's most acclaimed authors. MORE

From Holocaust Literature: An Encyclopedia of Writers and Their Work
Yehudah Amichai was born in 1924 in Wurtzburg, Germany, to Jewish orthodox parents. He was educated in religious schools, where he learned Hebrew. In 1936 his family relocated, first living in Petach Tikvah, Israel, and then in Jerusalem. MORE

Argentine poet, critic, and short-story writer, b. Buenos Aires. Borges has been widely hailed as the foremost contemporary Spanish-American writer. MORE

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Swedish poet. Ekelöf's lifelong interest in mysticism was evident in his first book, Late Arrival on Earth (1932, tr. 1967), a collection of surrealist poems. MORE

From Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003
Often considered the ‘national poet’ of Revolutionary Cuba, Guillén is one of the most important poets of the African diaspora and a central figure in the Latin American poetic canon. MORE

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Spanish poet of the Generation of '98. He spent most of his life in Castile and his best poetry was influenced by its sober and dramatic landscape. MORE

Cuban essayist, poet, and patriot, leader of the Cuban struggle for independence. One of the greatest prose writers of Spanish America, he is noted for his fluent style and vivid imagery. MORE

Poet, essayist, and novelist, b. Szetejnie, Lithuania (then in Russia). Widely considered the greatest contemporary Polish poet, Miłosz was born into an ethnically Polish family. MORE

Chilean poet, diplomat, and Communist leader. He changed his original name, Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basualto, so that his railroad-worker father would not discover that he was a poet. MORE

German poet, b. Prague, the greatest lyric poet of modern Germany. Rilke's youth at military and business school was not happy. MORE

Polish poet, awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. Her work is particularly noted for its careful choice of words and universal themes. MORE