Poem vs. Poetry 

"Poem" vs. "Poetry" in English

What Is Their Main Difference?

Basically, these two refer to a literary genre through which feelings are expressed with the use of literary elements like symbols, metaphors, rhythm, etc. However, 'poetry' is a literary genre and a 'poem' is the written verse.

Differences

As mentioned above, 'poetry' refers to a collection of poems. It is a literary genre that deals with expressing emotions. It is replete with literary elements like 'meter', 'rhyme', 'metaphor', etc. Look at the following examples:

Example

In epic poetry, remember to begin the poem in the middle.

We have different imageries in poetry.

A 'poem', on the other hand, is a written verse that deals with expressing emotions. Look at the following examples:

Example

'In some untrodden region of my mind'

The above is a line of John Keats poem called 'Ode to Psyche'.

Are you more into reading poems or novels?

Similarities

As mentioned above, they both refer to a literary genre through which emotions and feelings are expressed. They have lots of literary elements like imagery, metaphor, symbol, etc. Check out the following examples:

Example

Old English poetry is usually difficult to understand.

Have you read any of his poems recently?

Are They Interchangeable?

Although they both refer to a literary genre, they cannot be used interchangeably because 'poetry' refers to 'poems' as a whole, whereas, a 'poem' refers to one single work in this genre. Compare:

Example

✓ One of the important figures in Renaissance poetry is Shakespeare.

X One of the important figures in Renaissance poem is Shakespeare.

As you can see, this one is semantically wrong.

Comments

(0)
Loading Recaptcha...
Share on :
books
Learn English VocabularyStart learning categorized English vocabulary on Langeek.
Click to start
LanGeek
Download LanGeek app