1. The earliest forms of poetry predate written language. They were sung or recited to help people remember genealogy, laws, and oral history.

2. The word "poetry" is from the Greek term poiesis, which means "making."

3. Poetry is one of the oldest forms of communication, dating back to prehistoric times with hunting poetry in Africa and ancient Egypt.

4. The oldest surviving epic poem is the Epic of Gilgamesh and dates from the 3rd millennium BC in Sumer (now Iraq).

5. The longest poem in the world is the Mahabharata. An Indian epic poem dating from the 4th century BC or earlier, the poem has about 1.8 million words.

6. Poet's Day is celebrated every August 21.

7. The skin of murderer George Cudmore was used to bind an 1852 edition of John Milton's Poetical Works.

8. The word "unfriend" first appeared in a 1275 medieval poem titled "Brut" by Layamon. Coincidentally, this is also the same poem in which the word "muggle" first appears.

9. German poet Gottlob Burmann so despised the letter "r" that he avoided using it in his poems and 17 In 1998, an original printing of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales sold at auction for $7.4 million.

10. Anne Bradstreet was the first woman to be recognized as an accomplished poet in the British American colonies. After she died, her husband collected her poems and published them as a book, making her the first woman to have a published book in America.

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