Timeline of poetry’s history

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A journey through time: tracing the evolution of poetry from ancient epics to modern Instagram verses.


Timeline of poetry’s history

1. Prehistoric & Oral Traditions (Before 3000 BCE)

  • Poetry existed before writing — in chants, songs, and storytelling.

  • Used for rituals, history-keeping, and expressing emotions.

  • Early examples: tribal songs, hunting chants, and praise verses.

2. Ancient Civilizations (3000–500 BCE)

  • Sumerians (c. 2100 BCE) – The Epic of Gilgamesh (world’s oldest surviving poem).

  • Egyptians (c. 2000 BCE) – Love poems & hymns to gods.

  • Vedic Sanskrit (c. 1500 BCE) – Rigveda hymns.

  • China (c. 1000 BCE) – Shijing (“Book of Songs”), folk poems & court odes.

  • Greek Epics (c. 800 BCE) – Homer’s Iliad & Odyssey.

  • Hebrew poetry – Psalms & Song of Solomon in the Bible.

3. Classical Era (500 BCE – 500 CE)

  • Greek lyric poets like Sappho & Pindar.

  • Roman poets like Virgil (Aeneid), Ovid (Metamorphoses).

  • Development of meter (hexameter, iambic pentameter).

  • Persian poetry starts forming under the Achaemenid Empire.

4. Medieval Period (500–1500 CE)

  • Arabic poetry – Qasidas, ghazals, mystical poetry (Imru' al-Qais, Al-Mutanabbi).

  • Persian Golden Age – Rumi, Hafiz, Saadi.

  • European troubadours – courtly love poems & ballads.

  • Japanese poetry – haiku & tanka forms.

  • Early Urdu poetry emerges via Persian influence in South Asia (Amir Khusro).

5. Renaissance & Early Modern (1500–1800 CE)

  • Shakespeare – sonnets & dramatic poetry.

  • Milton – Paradise Lost.

  • Metaphysical poets – John Donne, George Herbert.

  • Rise of printed poetry books & literary criticism.

6. Romantic & Victorian Era (1800–1900 CE)

  • Romantic poets – Wordsworth, Keats, Byron, Shelley.

  • Nature, emotion, and imagination as themes.

  • Victorian poets – Tennyson, Browning.

  • Ghalib in Urdu poetry – deep, philosophical ghazals.

7. Modern & Contemporary (1900 CE – Present)

  • Modernists – T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

  • Free verse replaces strict rhyme schemes.

  • Rise of spoken word, rap, and slam poetry.

  • Social media poetry – short, shareable verses (e.g., Rupi Kaur).



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This romantic poetry in Urdu text was written by Wajiha Mushtaq. 
Pen name: Momin / Momina


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