hey, i cant seem to find any info on the history of poetry...so can someone please help me??!!

The history of poetry is a VERY BROAD SUBJECT. You have several ways to go.

ON THE NET... I did a search for "history of poetry" and SOME of the hits looked useful. Especially this one:

[www.bibliomania.com] />
The introduction says: "the Bibliomania guide to the development of poetry since Old English orally-transmitted verse. We have tried to give a broad history of poetry taking in key influences from outside England"

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AT THE LIBRARY, you can probably find an annotated anthology of poetry that goes chronologically from the ancients to the moderns. Look for one with a useful INTRODUCTORY ESSAY on each section.

And/or, look up POETRY in any good encyclopedia. It will probably include an overview of the history.

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There's a TIMELINE here:

[www.onlinepoetryclassroom.org] />
that will show you major poets of any period from 1600 to now. To see the whole menagerie, just click GO without specifying any dates, and it lists poets from Milton (borth 1608) to Kunitz (still writing).

But that's a chronology of POETS, not of POETRY.

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For a survey of POETRY (e.g., styles) rather than of people who wrote poetry, go here:

<[en.wikipedia.org] />
and poke around in the "Table of Contents." You'll probably want to start with sections 5 (History of Poetry) and 6.2 (Periods, Styles, and Movements).

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If anything, you'll find TOO MUCH material on the history of poetry. You'll have to narrow your topic in order to get any depth.

Post again if we can help with that.

There's a TIMELINE here

And another here, although English only:

[eir.library.utoronto.ca] />
Surely earlier ones could be found for India and/or China. Persia and others in the Middle East, yep. The first poem, as is well known, was recited by an African medicine man, to ward off evil spirits. Sadly, the text has been lost to us at this time.

Still, the concept has remained to this day: a poem must be conjure up magic!

A NY'er cartoon from many years back shows two artisans chiseling hyroglyphs on the side of an Egyptian pyramid. One has paused, with a troubled expression. The other one says to him: "If you can't draw a raven, just say CROW."

(History of Poetry - sidebar: History of editorial help.)