World Poetry Day is celebrated on 21st March every year, UNESCO marked this during its 30th general meeting held in Paris in 1999. The main purpose of celebrating this day was to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and to increase opportunities for endangered languages to be heard. World Poetry Day is the occasion to honour poets, revive old tradition of poetry recitals, promote reading, writing and teaching of poetry.
World Poetry Day was celebrated in October every year before declaring it official on 21 st March. It is believed that the first poetry day was conceptualised in 1936 when Tessa Sweazy Webb began to honour Ohio poets. She was a teacher at the Hocking County Children’s Home where she began writing poetry. She became well known across the state and nation for her published works. Under her successful leadership Ohio legislature passed a resolution in 1938 calling for an annual state observance of Ohio Poetry Day.
Just like beats and rhythm of music, poetry also has a rhythm in which the brain operates the same way as it reacts with music. The rhythm of poetry touches the soul of a person like music. Poetry has a potential to inspire a person and there were many poets who have expressed their anger to the injustice in society by writing poetry. Many rebellious poets had changed the minds of people to attain independence in India and have contributed a majority of their work towards the good of humanity.
Some of the famous poets of all time are William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, John Donne, Mary Oliver, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu, Aurobindo Ghosh. We as students need much more guidance and help in understanding and appreciating the value of poems. Poetry must be taught from the very beginning of a person’s life which is childhood.
Also read:
11 Surprising Facts About the World Poetry Day
