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I have an urgent question

Haejin Lee

The poet published her new poetry. Can the word poetry im this sentence means a single poem?


Poetry in the sentence means poems not a poem right?

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Bhavna

@Haejin Lee

Hello

The word "poetry" is uncountable and generally refers to a body of work or the art form as a whole, not a single poem.


Regards

wondering9

According to dictionary.com and merriam-webster.com, the word "poetry" does not specify multiple separate works or even whether an individual work is complete or partial. So yes, it could indeed refer to a single poem. Keep in mind, too, that a single "poem" can be 2 lines long or 2,000 lines long, and may have internal divisions or may not -- so whether a piece of work makes up a single "poem" may be a matter of interpretation anyway.


The use of "poetry" to mean one poem may be slightly unusual -- although even this would depend on the context -- but it is definitely not wrong.

harpocrates

@Haejin Lee

The implications would be that it was a collection of poetry. They would have written something different if it was only one poem. In any event, that is my take on it.

Yvon

gwynj

@Haejin Lee


More germane, perhaps, is your definition of "urgent". However, fear not, Pedant Man has heard your plea. :-)


Poetry and poem (or poems) are not synonyms. Poetry is a type of literary work, in the same way as "historic fiction" might be. A poem is an example of poetry, as are poems.


However, poetry would rarely to be used to refer one poem... especially as it would be exceedingly unlikely for any publisher to publish a work containing only one poem!


Even so, there are very long poems (such as Beowulf, or The Mahabharata, or The Ring and the Book) which could be published separately. But in this case, I'd write that she published "her new epic poem", rather than her new poetry.


Similarly, there are other specific forms of poetry such as limericks or sonnets or haiku, and I suggest that most poets/publishers would again prefer to say "new collection of limericks/sonnets/haiku" rather than the blandly unspecific poetry.


Personally, I'd also not write about plumbers showing off their latest plumbing, or carpenters admiring their newest carpentry. It's self-referential / descriptively uninteresting. Even if true. :-)