oral poetry
Verse without writing
Oral poetry is verse composed and transmitted by voice rather than writing.
Traditional epics, ballads, and folk songs existed for centuries before being written down.
Oral poets rely on memorized formulas, stock phrases, and rhythmic patterns that aid recall and improvisation: Homer's epics began as oral poetry.
The term also applies to contemporary spoken word and slam poetry performed without text.
- recitationOral delivery from memory
- griotAfrican oral tradition keeper
- storytellingRecounting events aloud
- communal gatheringShared group meeting
- folkloreInherited cultural narratives
sung verse · ballads · proverbs · epithets · word of mouth · mnemonic devices · alliteration · skald · improvisation · folk songs · rhythm · memorization · kennings · stock phrases · cadence · call-and-response · myth · tongue
- Kazakh Culturenomadic culture, hospitality customs, koumiss, horse games, horsemanship
- epicIliad, Odyssey, Beowulf, Aeneid, Gilgamesh
- oral traditionfolk narratives, campfire tales, epics, storytelling circles, spoken word
- spoken languagespeech, spoken word, pronunciation, accent, dialect
- poetry termsrhyme, verse, rhythm, meter, beat
- SwahiliSwahili, Kiswahili, Swahili coast, pole, mama
oral poetrymodernist poetry
Experimental verse breaking tradition
confessional poetry · lyric poetry · court poetry · experimental poetry