1.
Irish poetry
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Irish poetry includes poetry in two languages, Irish and English. The earliest surviving poems in Irish date back to the 6th century and this culminated in the work of the poets of the Irish Literary Revival in the late 19th and early 20th century. Poetry in Irish represents the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe, the earliest examples date from the 6th century, and are generally short lyrics on themes from religion or the world of nature. They were frequently written by their authors in the margins of the illuminated manuscripts that they were copying. The best known example is Pangur Bán and it was practical for poems to be short because the Irish recognized that it was necessary to use any means necessary to make the poems lasting in their oral culture. To accomplish such a feat as well as they have, they used complicated rhyme schemes that would render a poem nonsensical if any of the key words were changed from the original version, in an oral culture, Irish poetry had many uses. A poem could be used to both the poet and the subject of the poem, oftentimes kings would commission poets to create a piece about them. Such poems would be passed on to descendants so they would remember the deeds of past generations. Kings would also commission poets to write poems of advertisement, speaking of the greatness and worthiness. Oral poetry, because it was in the vernacular, was used for entertainment. Poems that were entertaining could also be informative, teaching people lessons or offering them wisdom of experience for dealing with situations they would encounter in their everyday lives. Finally, poems, especially those featured in the sagas, were thought to be an instrument of the supernatural, Another source of early Irish poetry is the poems in the tales and sagas, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Unlike many other European epic cycles, the Irish sagas were written in prose, Irish bards formed a professional hereditary caste of highly trained, learned poets. As officials of the court of king or chieftain, they performed a number of official roles and they were chroniclers and satirists whose job it was to praise their employers and damn those who crossed them. It was believed that a well-aimed bardic satire, glam dicin, the Metrical Dindshenchas, or Lore of Places, is probably the major surviving monument of Irish bardic verse. It is a great onomastic anthology of naming legends of significant places in the Irish landscape, the earliest of these date from the 11th century, and were probably originally compiled on a provincial basis. As a national compilation, the Metrical Dindshenchas has come down to us in two different recensions. Knowledge of the real or putative history of local places formed an important part of the education of the elite in ancient Ireland, verse tales of Fionn and the Fianna, sometimes known as Ossianic poetry, were extremely common in Ireland and Scotland throughout this period
2.
Song dynasty
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The Song dynasty was an era of Chinese history that began in 960 and continued until 1279. It succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, coincided with the Liao and Western Xia dynasties and it was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or true paper money nationally and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy. This dynasty also saw the first known use of gunpowder, as well as the first discernment of true north using a compass, the Song dynasty is divided into two distinct periods, Northern and Southern. During the Northern Song, the Song capital was in the city of Bianjing. The Southern Song refers to the period after the Song lost control of its half to the Jurchen Jin dynasty in the Jin–Song Wars. During this time, the Song court retreated south of the Yangtze, the Southern Song dynasty considerably bolstered its naval strength to defend its waters and land borders and to conduct maritime missions abroad. To repel the Jin, and later the Mongols, the Song developed revolutionary new military technology augmented by the use of gunpowder, in 1234, the Jin dynasty was conquered by the Mongols, who took control of northern China, maintaining uneasy relations with the Southern Song. Möngke Khan, the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire and his younger brother Kublai Khan was proclaimed the new Great Khan, though his claim was only partially recognized by the Mongols in the west. In 1271, Kublai Khan was proclaimed the Emperor of China, after two decades of sporadic warfare, Kublai Khans armies conquered the Song dynasty in 1279. The Mongol invasion led to a reunification under the Yuan dynasty, the population of China doubled in size during the 10th and 11th centuries. The Northern Song census recorded a population of roughly 50 million, much like the Han and this data is found in the Standard Histories. However, it is estimated that the Northern Song had a population of some 100 million people and this dramatic increase of population fomented an economic revolution in pre-modern China. The expansion of the population, growth of cities, and the emergence of a national economy led to the withdrawal of the central government from direct involvement in economic affairs. The lower gentry assumed a role in grassroots administration and local affairs. Appointed officials in county and provincial centers relied upon the gentry for their services, sponsorship. Social life during the Song was vibrant, citizens gathered to view and trade precious artworks, the populace intermingled at public festivals and private clubs, and cities had lively entertainment quarters. The spread of literature and knowledge was enhanced by the expansion of woodblock printing. Technology, science, philosophy, mathematics, and engineering flourished over the course of the Song, although the institution of the civil service examinations had existed since the Sui dynasty, it became much more prominent in the Song period
3.
Wang Anshi
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Wang Anshi was a Chinese economist, statesman, chancellor and poet of the Song Dynasty who attempted major and controversial socioeconomic reforms known as the New Policies. These reforms constituted the core concepts of the Song-Dynasty Reformists, in contrast to their rivals, Wang Anshis ideas are usually analyzed in terms of the influence the Rites of Zhou or Legalism had on him. His economic reforms included increase currency circulation, breaking up of private monopolies and his military reforms expanded the use of local militias and his government reforms expanded the civil service examination system and attempted to suppress nepotism in government. Although successful for a while, he fell out of favor of the emperor. During the Song Dynasty, the development of large estates, whose owners managed to evade paying their share of taxes. The drop in revenues, a succession of budget deficits. Wang Anshi came from a family of scholars and was placed fourth in the imperial exam of 1042. He spent the first twenty years of his career in the government of the lower Yangtze region. During this period, he gained experience in local governance. This experience guided his analysis in formulating solutions to revitalize the ailing Song society, Wang came to power as 2nd privy councilor in 1069. It was there that he introduced and promulgated his reform policy, there were three main components to this policy, 1) state finance and trade, 2) defense and social order, and 3) education and improving of governance. He believed that foundation of the state rests on the well being of the common people, to limit speculation and eliminate private monopolies, he initiated price control and regulated wages and set up pensions for the aged and unemployed. The state also began to institute public orphanages, hospitals, dispensaries, hospices, cemeteries, the military reform centered on a new institution of the baojia system or organized households. This was done to ensure collective responsibility in society and was used to strengthen local defense. He also proposed the creation of systems to breed military horses, tests in law, military affairs and medicine were added to the examination system, with mathematics added in 1104. The National Academy was transformed into a school rather than simply a holding place for officials waiting for appointments. However, there was deep-seated resistance to the reforms as it hurt bureaucrats coming in under the old system. Although Wang had the alliance of such prominent court figures as Shen Kuo, imperial scholar-officials such as Su Dongpo and they believed Wangs reforms were against the moral fundamentals of the Two Emperors and would therefore prevent the Song from experiencing the prosperity and peace of the ancients
4.
Imperial examination
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The Chinese imperial examinations were a civil service examination system in Imperial China to select candidates for the state bureaucracy. The examination helped to shape Chinas intellectual, cultural, political, shopping, arts and crafts, the increased reliance on the exam system was in part responsible for Tang dynasty shifting from a military aristocracy to a gentry class of scholar-bureaucrats. Starting with the Song dynasty, the system was regularized and developed into a roughly three-tiered ladder from local to provincial to court exams, the content was narrowed and fixed on texts of Neo-Confucian orthodoxy. Critics charged that the system stifled creativity and created officials who dared not defy authority, wealthy families, especially merchants, could opt into the system by educating their sons or purchasing degrees. In the 19th century, critics blamed the system, and in the process its examinations, for Chinas lack of technical knowledge. The influence of the Chinese examination system spread to neighboring Asian countries, such as Vietnam, Korea, Japan, following the initial success in that company, the British government adopted a similar testing system for screening civil servants in 1855. Other European nations, such as France and Germany, followed suit, modeled after these previous adaptations, the U. S established its own testing program for certain government jobs after 1883. However, the structure of the system was extensively expanded during the reign of Wu Zetian. Thus the system played a key role in the selection of the scholar-officials, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the system contributed to the narrowness of intellectual life and the autocratic power of the emperor. The system continued with some modifications until its 1905 abolition under the Qing dynasty, other brief interruptions to the system occurred, such as at the beginning of the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century. The modern examination system for selecting civil servants also indirectly evolved from the imperial one and this changed during the Sui, when recruitment into the imperial civil service bureaucracy became to be considered an imperial prerogative, rather than a duty to be performed by the lower levels. By the Tang dynasty, most of the recruitment into central government bureaucrat offices was being performed by the bureaucracy itself, the regular higher level degree examination cycle was nominally decreed in 1067 to be 3 years. The jinshi tests were not an event and should not be considered so. Oral examination on policy issues were sometimes conducted personally by the emperor himself, beginning in the Three Kingdoms period, imperial officials were responsible for assessing the quality of the talents recommended by the local elites. This system continued until Emperor Yang of Sui established a new category of recommended candidates for the mandarinate in AD605, for the first time, an examination system was explicitly instituted for a category of local talents. However, the Sui dynasty was short-lived, and the system did not reach its mature development until afterwards, a pivotal point in the development of imperial examinations arose with the rise of Wu Zetian. Up until that point, the rulers of the Tang dynasty were all members of the Li family. Reform of the examinations to include a new class of elite bureaucrats derived from humbler origins became a keystone of Wus gamble to retain power
5.
Mei Yaochen
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Mei Yaochen was a poet of the Song dynasty. He was one of the pioneers of the new style of poetry which characterized Song poetry. Mei Yaochen was born in Xuancheng in present-day Anhui Province and his style name was Sheng Yu. He passed the exam in 1051 and had a career in the civil service. He was a poet, with around 3000 works extant. Most of his works are in the shi form, but they are much freer in content than those of the Tang dynasty. His response to the impossibility of surpassing the Tang poets was to make a virtue of his lack of ambition, his ideal was 平淡, an example is his poem translated into English by Kenneth Rexroth as An Excuse for Not Returning the Visit of a Friend. Chinese poetry Song poetry Classical Chinese poetry Chinese literature Culture of the Song Dynasty Ci hai bian ji wei yuan hui, Shanghai, Shanghai ci shu chu ban she （上海辞书出版社）,1979. MEI YAO-CHEN AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY SUNG POETRY
6.
Cai Xiang
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Cai Xiang was a Chinese calligrapher, scholar, official, structural engineer, and poet. He had the reputation as the greatest calligrapher in the Song dynasty and he was born during the Dazhongxiangfu era of the Song dynasty in Xianyou county of Xinghua prefecture, now Xianyou County in Putian of Fujian province. In the eight year of the Tiansheng era he obtained the degree of jinshi and his highest rank was Secretariat Drafter of the Duanming Court, in charge of written communication of the imperial government. During the Qingli era, he was the Officer of Transportation in Fujian, while acting as a prefect in Fujian, he also was in charge of overseeing the construction of the Wan-an Bridge at Quanzhou. He pioneered the manufacturing of small Dragon Tribute Tea Cake of superlative quality, cai Xiangs style name was Junmo, and his posthumous name was Zhonghuei. One of his most famous publications is his essay The Record of Tea, also known as the Tea Note, which he wrote in 1049–1053
7.
Poetry
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Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotles Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on such as repetition, verse form and rhyme. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a creative act employing language. Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly figures of such as metaphor, simile and metonymy create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm. Some poetry types are specific to cultures and genres and respond to characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. Much modern poetry reflects a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing, among other things, in todays increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages. Some scholars believe that the art of poetry may predate literacy, others, however, suggest that poetry did not necessarily predate writing. The oldest surviving poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, comes from the 3rd millennium BCE in Sumer. An example of Egyptian epic poetry is The Story of Sinuhe, other forms of poetry developed directly from folk songs. The earliest entries in the oldest extant collection of Chinese poetry, the efforts of ancient thinkers to determine what makes poetry distinctive as a form, and what distinguishes good poetry from bad, resulted in poetics—the study of the aesthetics of poetry. Some ancient societies, such as Chinas through her Shijing, developed canons of poetic works that had ritual as well as aesthetic importance, Classical thinkers employed classification as a way to define and assess the quality of poetry. Later aestheticians identified three major genres, epic poetry, lyric poetry, and dramatic poetry, treating comedy and tragedy as subgenres of dramatic poetry, Aristotles work was influential throughout the Middle East during the Islamic Golden Age, as well as in Europe during the Renaissance. English Romantic poet John Keats termed this escape from logic Negative Capability and this romantic approach views form as a key element of successful poetry because form is abstract and distinct from the underlying notional logic
8.
11th century
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As a means of recording the passage of time, the 11th century is the period from 1001 to 1100 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Common Era, and the 1st century of the 2nd millennium. In the history of Europe, this period is considered the part of the High Middle Ages. There was a decline of Byzantine power and rise of Norman domination over much of Europe. In Northern Italy, a growth of population in urban centers gave rise to early organized capitalism, in Ukraine, there was the golden age for the principality of Kievan Rus. Rival political factions at the Song dynasty court created strife amongst the leading statesmen, chola-era India and Fatimid-era Egypt, had reached their zenith in military might and international influence. The Western Chalukya Empire also rose to power by the end of the century, in this century the Turkish Seljuk dynasty comes to power in Western Asia over the now fragmented Abbasid realm, while the first of the Crusades were waged towards the close of the century. In Japan, the Fujiwara clan continued to dominate the affairs of state, in Korea, the Goryeo Kingdom flourished and faced external threats from the Liao dynasty. In Vietnam, the Lý Dynasty began, while in Myanmar the Pagan Kingdom reached its height of political, in the Americas, the Toltec and Mixtec civilizations flourished in Central America, along with the Huari Culture of South America and the Mississippian culture of North America. In European history, the 11th century is regarded as the beginning of the High Middle Ages, the century began while the translatio imperii of 962 was still somewhat novel and ended in the midst of the Investiture Controversy. In 1054, the Great Schism rent the church in two, however, in Germany, the century was marked by the ascendancy of the Holy Roman Emperors, who hit their high-water mark under the Salians. In Italy, it opened with the integration of the kingdom into the empire, in Britain, it saw the transformation of Scotland into a single, more unified and centralised kingdom and the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The social transformations wrought in these lands brought them into the orbit of European feudal politics. There were also the first figures of the movement known as Scholasticism. In Spain, the century opened with the successes of the last caliphs of Córdoba, in between was a period of Christian unification under Navarrese hegemony and success in the Reconquista against the taifa kingdoms that replaced the fallen caliphate. Meanwhile, opposing political factions evolved at the Song imperial court of Kaifeng, in India, the Chola Dynasty reached its height of naval power under leaders such as Rajaraja Chola I and Rajendra Chola I, dominating southern India, Sri Lanka, and regions of South East Asia. They also sent raids into what is now Thailand, in Japan, the Fujiwara clan dominated central politics by acting as imperial regents, controlling the actions of the Emperor of Japan, who acted merely as a puppet monarch during the Heian period. In the Middle East, the Fatimid Empire of Egypt reached its only to face steep decline. The Seljuks came to prominence while the Abbasid caliphs held traditional titles without real, in Nigeria, formation of city states, kingdoms and empires, including Hausa kingdoms and Borno dynasty in north, Oyo and Benin kingdoms in south
9.
12th century
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As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century is the period from 1101 to 1200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Common Era. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages and is called the Age of the Cistercians. In Song dynasty China an invasion by Jurchens caused a schism of north and south. The Khmer Empire of Cambodia flourished during this century, while the Fatimids of Egypt were overtaken by the Ayyubid dynasty, China is under the Northern Song dynasty. Early in the century, Zhang Zeduan paints Along the River During the Qingming Festival and it will later end up in the Palace Museum, Beijing. In southeast Asia, there is conflict between the Khmer Empire and the Champa, Angkor Wat is built under the Hindu king Suryavarman II. By the end of the century the Buddhist Jayavarman VII becomes the ruler, Japan is in its Heian period. The Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga is made and attributed to Toba Sōjō and it ends up at the Kōzan-ji, Kyoto. In Oceania, the Tuʻi Tonga Empire expands to a greater area. Europe undergoes the Renaissance of the 12th century, the blast furnace for the smelting of cast iron is imported from China, appearing around Lapphyttan, Sweden, as early as 1150. Alexander Neckam is the first European to document the mariners compass, Christian humanism becomes a self-conscious philosophical tendency in Europe. Christianity is also introduced to Estonia, Finland, and Karelia, the first medieval universities are founded. Middle English begins to develop, and literacy begins to spread outside the Church throughout Europe, in addition, churchmen are increasingly willing to take on secular roles. By the end of the century, at least a third of Englands bishops also act as judges in secular matters. The Ars antiqua period in the history of the music of Western Europe begins. The earliest recorded miracle play is performed in Dunstable, England Gothic architecture and trouvère music begin in France, during the middle of the century, the Cappella Palatina is built in Palermo, Sicily, and the Madrid Skylitzes manuscript illustrates the Synopsis of Histories by John Skylitzes. Fire and plague insurance first become available in Iceland, and the first documented outbreaks of influenza there happens, the medieval state of Serbia state is formed by Stefan Nemanja and then continued by the Nemanjić dynasty. By the end of the century, both the Capetian Dynasty and the House of Anjou are relying primarily on mercenaries in their militaries, paid soldiers are available year-round, unlike knights who expected certain periods off to maintain their manor lifestyles
10.
American poetry
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Unsurprisingly, most of the early colonists work relied on contemporary British models of poetic form, diction, and theme. However, in the 19th century, a distinctive American idiom began to emerge, the history of American poetry is not easy to know. The received narrative of Modernism proposes that Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot were perhaps the most influential modernist English-language poets in the period during World War I. But this narrative leaves out African American and women poets who were published, by the 1960s, the young poets of the British Poetry Revival looked to their American contemporaries and predecessors as models for the kind of poetry they wanted to write. There are 14 such writers whom we might on that basis call American poets, early examples include a 1616 testimonial poem on the sterling warlike character of Captain John Smith and Rev. One of the first recorded poets of the British colonies was Anne Bradstreet, the poems she published during her lifetime address religious and political themes. She also wrote tender evocations of home, family life and of her love for her husband, edward Taylor wrote poems expounding Puritan virtues in a highly wrought metaphysical style that can be seen as typical of the early colonial period. This narrow focus on the Puritan ethic was, understandably, the dominant note of most of the written in the colonies during the 17th. Of course, being a Puritan minister as well as a poet, a distinctly American lyric voice of the colonial period was Phillis Wheatley, a slave whose book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was published in 1773. She was one of the poets of her day, at least in the colonies. The 18th century saw an emphasis on America itself as fit subject matter for its poets. The work of Rebecca Hammond Lard, although old, still apply to life in todays world. She writes about nature, not only the nature of environment, on the whole, the development of poetry in the American colonies mirrors the development of the colonies themselves. The early poetry is dominated by the need to preserve the integrity of the Puritan ideals that created the settlement in the first place, as the colonists grew in confidence, the poetry they wrote increasingly reflected their drive towards independence. This shift in subject matter was not reflected in the mode of writing which tended to be conservative and this can be seen as a product of the physical remove at which American poets operated from the center of English-language poetic developments in London. The first significant poet of the independent United States was William Cullen Bryant, whose contribution was to write rhapsodic poems on the grandeur of prairies. Formed the Fireside Poets were a group of 19th-century American poets from New England, the poets primary subjects were the domestic life, mythology, and politics of the United States, in which several of the poets were directly involved. Other notable poets to emerge in the early and middle 19th century include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, Sidney Lanier, and James Whitcomb Riley
11.
Welsh literature in English
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Anglo-Welsh literature and Welsh writing in English are terms used to describe works written in the English language by Welsh writers. It has been recognised as a distinctive entity only since the 20th century, however, the genre did not develop in these writers much beyond its origin in rural sketches. Satire was avoided, and, since the market was London publishers. There is no final, clear definition of what constitutes a Welsh writer in English, obviously it includes Welsh writers whose first language is English, rather than Welsh, such as Swansea born Dylan Thomas and novelist Emyr Humphreys, born in Prestatyn in 1919. But it also includes those born outside Wales with Welsh parentage, in addition to using Welsh history and settings, Powys also uses the mythology of The Mabinogion. He also studied the Welsh language, the Liverpool-born novelist James Hanley lived in Wales from 1931 until 1963 and was buried there. Hanley published, Grey Children, A Study in Humbug and Misery, as one writer notes, a widely debatable area of Anglo-Welsh acceptability exists. Ironically, Saunders Lewis was himself born in Wallasey in England to a Welsh-speaking family, the problems are perhaps epitomised by Roald Dahl, a writer of short stories and childrens literature. Dahl was born in Wales, to Norwegian parents, and spent much of his life in England, thus he might be seen partly as a Welsh analogue to Northern Irelands C. S. Lewis. Peter George is another example of a writer of Welsh origins who rarely wrote about Wales, conversely, Eric Linklater was born in Penarth, but is generally considered a Scottish writer. A further challenge for the definition of Welsh literature in English has come with the globalisation of culture, however, modern Welsh literature in English reflects a multicultural experience. If a Welsh writer chooses to write in English, this does not mean that they are unable to speak Welsh as well, in some cases, such as Jan Morris or Gillian Clarke, English-language writers have chosen to learn Welsh. In others, a native Welsh speaker such as Siân James or Jo Walton may choose to write some, Writing for an English-language market does not necessarily mean that they have abandoned a Welsh language audience. Furthermore, she suggests in Vaughans case the possible influence of the tradition of Welsh-language poetry, Writers from medieval Wales such as Geoffrey of Monmouth and Adam of Usk also used Latin and Norman French, in addition to English and Welsh. A rival claim for the first Welsh writer to use English creatively is made for the poet, clanvowes best-known work was The Book of Cupid, God of Love or The Cuckoo and the Nightingale. Which is influenced by Chaucers Parliament of Fowls, the Cuckoo and the Nightingale had previously been attributed to Chaucer but the Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature notes the absence of direct evidence linking Clanvowe with the work. The poem is written as a dream vision and is an example of medieval debate poetry. A concerto inspired by the poem was composed by Georg Friedrich Handel and it apparently also influenced works by both John Milton and William Wordsworth
12.
Arabic poetry
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Arabic poetry is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, Arabic poetry is categorized into two main types, rhymed or measured, and prose, with the former greatly preceding the latter. The rhymed poetry falls within fifteen different meters collected and explained by al-Farahidi in The Science of ‘Arud, al-Akhfash, a student of al-Farahidi, later added one more meter to make them sixteen. The meters of the poetry are known in Arabic as seas. The measuring unit of seas is known as taf‘īlah, and every sea contains a number of tafilas which the poet has to observe in every verse of the poem. The measuring procedure of a poem is very rigorous, sometimes adding or removing a consonant or a vowel can shift the bayt from one meter to another. Also, in rhymed poetry, every bayt has to end with the same throughout the poem. Researchers and critics of Arabic poetry usually classify it in two categories, classical and modern poetry, Classical poetry was written before the Arabic renaissance. Thus, all poetry that was written in the style is called classical or traditional poetry since it follows the traditional style. It is also known as horizontal poetry in reference to its horizontal parallel structure, modern poetry, on the other hand, deviated from classical poetry in its content, style, structure, rhyme and topics. The first major poet in the era is Imru al-Qais. Although most of the poetry of that era was not preserved, Poetry held an important position in pre-Islamic society with the poet or shair filling the role of historian, soothsayer and propagandist. Words in praise of the tribe and lampoons denigrating other tribes seem to have some of the most popular forms of early poetry. The shair represented an individual tribes prestige and importance in the Arabian peninsula, ukaz, a market town not far from Mecca, would play host to a regular poetry festival where the craft of the shairs would be exhibited. Alongside the shair, and often as his apprentice, was the rawi or reciter. The job of the rawi was to learn the poems by heart and to them with explanations. This tradition allowed the transmission of these works and the practice was later adopted by the huffaz for their memorisation of the Quran. At some periods there have been unbroken chains of illustrious poets, each one training a rawi as a bard to promote his verse, and then to take over from them and continue the poetic tradition
13.
Australian literature
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Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early Western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies, therefore, Banjo Paterson, historians Manning Clark and Geoffrey Blainey, the playwright David Williamson and leading expatriate writers Barry Humphries, Robert Hughes, Clive James and Germaine Greer. There are also Australian works produced by writers in other than English. Notable contemporary expatriate authors include the feminist Germaine Greer, art historian Robert Hughes and humorists Barry Humphries, among the important authors of classic Australian works are the poets Henry Lawson, Banjo Paterson, C. J. Dennis and Dorothea Mackellar. Dennis wrote in the Australian vernacular, while Mackellar wrote the patriotic poem My Country. Lawson and Paterson clashed in the famous Bulletin Debate over the nature of life in Australia with Lawson considered to have the harder edged view of the Bush and Paterson the romantic. Lawson is widely regarded as one of Australias greatest writers of short stories, significant poets of the 20th century included Dame Mary Gilmore, Kenneth Slessor, A. D. Among the best known contemporary poets are Les Murray and Bruce Dawe, novelists of classic Australian works include Marcus Clarke, Miles Franklin, Henry Handel Richardson, Joseph Furphy, Rolf Boldrewood and Ruth Park. David Unaipon is known as the first indigenous author, oodgeroo Noonuccal was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse. A significant contemporary account of the experiences of Indigenous Australia can be found in Sally Morgans My Place, Charles Bean, Geoffrey Blainey, Robert Hughes, Manning Clark and Marcia Langton are authors of important Australian histories. We Europeans, wrote Cook in his journal on 23 August 1770, for this he is known as the first Aboriginal author. Oodgeroo Noonuccal was a famous Aboriginal poet, writer and rights activist credited with publishing the first Aboriginal book of verse, Sally Morgans novel My Place was considered a breakthrough memoir in terms of bringing indigenous stories to wider notice. Leading Aboriginal activists Marcia Langton and Noel Pearson are active contributors to Australian literature. The voices of Indigenous Australians are being noticed and include the playwright Jack Davis. Writers coming to prominence in the 21st century include Kim Scott, Alexis Wright, Kate Howarth Tara June Winch, in poetry Yvette Holt and in popular fiction Anita Heiss. Indigenous authors who have won Australias high prestige Miles Franklin Award include Kim Scott who was joint winner in 2000 for Benang, Alexis Wright won the award in 2007 for her novel Carpentaria. Many notable works have been written by non-indigenous Australians on Aboriginal themes, examples include the poems of Judith Wright, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally, Ilbarana by Donald Stuart, and the short story by David Malouf, The Only Speaker of his Tongue. AustLits BlackWords project provides a listing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers and Storytellers
14.
Bengali poetry
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Bengali poetry is a form that originated in Pāli and other Prakrit socio-cultural traditions. It is antagonistic towards Vedic rituals and laws as opposed to the shramanic traditions such as Buddhism and Jainism, however the modern Bengali owes much to Sanskrit. The history of Bengali poetry underwent three successive stages of development, poetry of the age, the Medieval period and the age of modern poetry. Modernity was introduced into Bengali poetry in the 1930s, Bengali poetry probably began during the 10th century. It is known for the mystic poems called Charyacharyavinishchaya, and sometimes called Charyapad or Charyagiti and these poems were discovered in Nepals Royal Library by Bengali scholar Mahamahopadhyay Haraprasad Shastri. Krittibas Ojha Kashiram Das The Medieval period of Bengali poetry was between 1350 and 1800 and it was known as the period of Jayadeva, the renowned 12th-century poet from neighboring Odisha who was famous for his poem Gitagovinda. Other noted poets from this period include 13th century Vidyapati, known for his lyrics and Baḍu, Chandidas. Sri Krishna Kirtan is considered to be the most important philosophical, the period from 1500 to 1800 is known as the Late Middle Bengali Period. During this period, there was an influence of Chaitanya. Vaishnava poets include Govinddas and Gyandas, beside Vaishnava poetry, the most significant work of the 16th century was Mukunda Chakravartis Chandimangal. Other Mangal-Kāvyas or religious texts are Manasamangal, Dharmamangal and Phullaketu, two of Bengals most well known Muslim poets, Daulat Qazi and Alaol, lived in the 15th century in Myanmar. Bharat Chandra marks the transition between Precolonial theocentric poetry and modern poetry, iswar Gupta, Michael Madhusudan Dutta, Biharilal Chakravarti, Rabindranath Tagore are noteworthy poets of this period. It was a movement that brought permanent change to the structure. Kazi Nazrul Islam first built the foundation of modern Bengali poetry by introducing modern concept of revolt against all autocracy, hypocrisy, superstition, one notable sect of modernists included pro-socialism poets like Sukanta Bhattacharya and Samar Sen. Modern Bengali poetry has also witnessed feminist intellect Kabita Singha, mallika Sengupta, Krishna Basu and Sriparna Bandyopadhyay being some of the most prominent names
15.
Byzantine literature
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Byzantine literature is the Greek literature of the Middle Ages, whether written in the territory of the Byzantine Empire or outside its borders. It forms the second period in the history of Greek literature, though popular Byzantine literature and early Modern Greek literature and this practice was perpetuated by a long-established system of Greek education where rhetoric was a leading subject. A typical product of this Byzantine education was the Greek Church Fathers, consequently, the vast Christian literature of the 3rd to 6th centuries established a synthesis of Hellenic and Christian thought. In addition, this style was also removed from the Koine Greek language of the New Testament, reaching back to Homer. In this manner, the culture of the Byzantine Empire was marked for over 1000 years by a diglossy between two different forms of the language, which were used for different purposes. However, the relations between the high and low forms of Greek changed over the centuries, the political recovery of the 9th century instigated a literary revival, in which a conscious attempt was made to recreate the Hellenic-Christian literary culture of late antiquity. Simple or popular Greek was avoided in literary use and many of the saints lives were rewritten in an archaizing style. By the 12th century the cultural confidence of the Byzantine Greeks led them to new literary genres, such as romantic fiction, in which adventure. Satire made occasional use of elements from spoken Greek, at the same time there was the beginning of a flourishing literature in an approximation to the vernacular Modern Greek. However the vernacular literature was limited to poetic romances and popular devotional writing, all serious literature continued to make use of the archaizing language of learned Greek tradition. Byzantine literature has two sources, Classical Greek and Orthodox Christian tradition, each of those sources provided a series of models and references for the Byzantine writer and his readers. The oldest of three civilizations is the Greek, centered not in Athens but in Alexandria and Hellenistic civilization. Alexandria through this period is the center of both Atticizing scholarship and of Graeco-Judaic social life, looking towards Athens as well as towards Jerusalem and this intellectual dualism between the culture of scholars and that of the people permeates the Byzantine period. Both tendencies persisted in Byzantium, but the first, as the one officially recognized, retained predominance and was not driven from the field until the fall of the empire, the reactionary linguistic movement known as Atticism supported and enforced this scholarly tendency. Alexandria, the center, is balanced by Rome, the center of government. It is as a Roman Empire that the Byzantine state first entered history, its citizens were known as Romans and its laws were Roman, so were its government, its army, and its official class, and at first also its language and its private and public life. The organization of the state was similar to that of the Roman imperial period, including its hierarchy. It was in Alexandria that Graeco-Oriental Christianity had its birth, on Egyptian soil monasticism began and thrived
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Bulgarian literature
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Bulgarian literature is literature written by Bulgarians or residents of Bulgaria, or written in the Bulgarian language, usually the latter is the defining feature. Bulgarian literature can be said to be one of the oldest among the Slavic peoples, having its roots during the late 9th century and the times of Simeon I of the First Bulgarian Empire. In the late 9th, the 10th and early 11th century literature in Bulgaria prospered, with many books being translated from Byzantine Greek, many scholars worked in the Preslav and Ohrid Literary Schools, creating the Cyrillic script for their needs. Bulgarian scholars and works influenced most of the Slavic world, spreading Old Church Slavonic, the Cyrillic, as the Bulgarian Empire was subjugated by the Byzantines in 1018, Bulgarian literary activity declined. However, after the establishment of the Second Bulgarian Empire followed another period of upsurge during the time of Patriarch Evtimiy in the 14th century. Evtimiy founded the Tarnovo Literary School that significantly affected the literature of Serbia and Muscovite Russia, apart from Evtimiy, other established writers from the period were Constantine of Kostenets and Gregory Tsamblak. Medieval Bulgarian literature was dominated by themes, most works being hymns, treatises, religious miscellanies, apocrypha and hagiographies, most often heroic. The fall of the Second Bulgarian Empire to the Ottomans in 1396 was a blow for Bulgarian literature and culture in general. Literary activity largely ceased, being concentrated in the monasteries that established themselves as centres of Bulgarian culture in the foreign empire, the religious theme continued to be dominant in the few works that were produced. The main literary form of the 17th and 18th century were instructive sermons, at first translated from Greek, many of these works were written in a mixture of vernacular Bulgarian, Church Slavonic and Serbo-Croatian and was called Illyric. Among these was the first book printed in modern Bulgarian, the breviary Abagar published in Rome in 1651 by Filip Stanislavov, the Illyrian movement for South Slavic unity affected the Bulgarian literature of the 18th and 19th century. Hristofor Zhefarovichs Stemmatographia of 1741 is thought of as the earliest example of modern Bulgarian secular poetry for its quatrains, the nearly five centuries of Ottoman government of Bulgaria played a decisive role in the developing of the Bulgarian culture. The country was separated from the European Renaissance movements and higher forms of expression and developed mostly its folklore songs. A new revival of Bulgarian literature began in the 18th century with the writings of Paisius of Hilendar. Another influential work was Life and Sufferings of Sinful Sophronius by Sophronius of Vratsa, in the period 1840-1875 the literature came alive with writings on mainly revolutionary, anti-Turkish themes. It was a stage of the Bulgarian Renaissance and the most prominent poets at this time were, Vassil Drumev, Rayko Zhinzifov. The noted poet and revolutionary Hristo Botev worked in the late 19th century and is regarded as arguably the foremost Bulgarian poet of the period. He managed to use the language of the folklore songs to give an expression of modern ideas, doubts
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