World Poetry Day: It is celebrated on March 21 annually with the purpose of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and generating or increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard. Take a look at the history and significance of the day.
World Poetry Day: Date
The day was first adopted by UNESCO in 1999 at the 30th General Conference in Paris. It is celebrated on March 21 annually. Poetry can be defined as a form of literature that celebrates the abstraction and beauty of words. The purpose of the poem is to explore human conditions through the power of imagery and metaphor. It has become an underlying source of alleviation of much of humanity’s existential dilemmas, ideas from within, etc. The day honours the poets who continue the tradition in newer generations.
- 2025: 21 March, 2025 [Friday]
- 2026: 21 March, 2026 [Saturday]
- 2027: 21 March, 2027 [Sunday]
- 2028: 21 March, 2028 [Tuesday]
World Poetry Day: History
March 21 was adopted by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) at the 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999 to observe World Poetry Day. It is an occasion to honour the poets, revive oral traditions of poetry recitals, and promote the reading, writing, and teaching of poetry as per the UN. The day also focuses on raising the visibility of poetry in the media and fosters the convergence between poetry and other arts, including theatre, dance, music, and painting. With poetry, people come close to each other across continents.
Theme:
- 2025: Poetry as a Bridge for Peace and Inclusion
- 2024: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
- 2023: Always be a poet, even in prose
World Poetry Day: Significance
In around 2000 BCE, written poetry is thought to have surfaced with the Epic of Gilgamesh. Though poetry has evolved in form and function, its roots remain the same: to bring people closer together through the power of imagery and metaphor. Poetry pushes boundaries to help understand the experience of many. The day promotes poetry as a way to communicate across borders and cultural differences.
World Poetry Day is celebrated across the world with readings and ceremonies honouring poets of high achievement and also with teaching the craft to aspiring writers.
Therefore, it is a day dedicated to poetry, which is an art form that has persisted for millennia and will continue to enrich the lives of today’s humans.
Popular Quotes:
- Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is the painting that is felt rather than seen. ~ Leonardo da Vinci
- Poetry, like jazz, is one of those dazzling diamonds of creative industry that help human beings make sense out of the comedies and tragedies that contextualize our lives. ~ Aberjhani
- Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley
- A poet is a verb that blossoms light in gardens of dawn, or sometimes midnight. ~ Aberjhani
- Poetry empowers the simplest of lives to confront the most extreme sorrows with courage, and motivates the mightiest of offices to humbly heed lessons in compassion. ~ Aberjhani
- Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry. ~ Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel
- Every heart sings a song, incomplete until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet. ~ Plato
- You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts. ~ Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
- A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. ~ Robert Frost
- Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper, That we may record our emptiness. ~ Kahlil Gibran
Greeting Cards:
Wishes and Messages:
- A poet gathers the past, the present, and the future and spills them into poetry that can survive an eternity. Happy World Poetry Day!
- The only language of the heart is poetry. Write a poem and speak your heart out on this day. Happy World Poetry Day!
- The poetry of the earth is never dead. Happy World Poetry Day!
- Celebrate this occasion of World Poetry Day by writing poetry for all your friends and family and communicating to them how you feel about them. Happy World Poetry Day.
- The only language of the heart is poetry. Write a poem and speak your heart out on this day.
- World Poetry Day serves as a reminder that poetry is fading from view and that we must do everything in our power to preserve it. All the best on World Poetry Day.
- Let’s celebrate the creativity and magic of poetry, which has so much to say in its own special way. You have my sincere greetings on this World Poetry Day.
- If you have poetry to motivate you to live a better life each and every day, life will never get boring. Congratulations on World Poetry Day, and best wishes to you.