14世纪晚期， poetrie，意为“诗歌，韵文创作；一首诗；古代文学；诗歌作品，寓言或故事”，来自古法语 poetrie（13世纪），可能直接源自中世纪拉丁语 poetria（约650年），源自拉丁语 poeta（参见 poet）。在古典拉丁语中， poetria 意为“女诗人”；“诗歌”是 poetica 或 poetice。
比喻用法始于1660年代。古英语有 metergeweorc “韵文”， metercræft “韵律艺术”。还有 scop-cræft “诗人的艺术”。现代英语在这一词组中缺乏真正的动词形式，尽管 poeticize（1804年）， poetize（1580年代，来自法语 poétiser），和 poetrize（约1600年）已被尝试。拉丁语动词是 poetari “创作诗歌，成为诗人。” Poetry in motion（1826年）可能来自 poetry of motion（1813年）“舞蹈”（也有 poetry of the foot，1660年代）。 Poetry slam始于1993年。
It is only by a miracle that poetry is written at all. It is not recoverable thought, but a hue caught from a vaster receding thought. A poem is one undivided unimpeded expression fallen ripe into literature, and it is undividedly and unimpededly received by those for whom it was matured. [Thoreau, "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"]
诗歌的创作无疑是一个奇迹。它不是可恢复的思想，而是从更广阔的退却思想中捕捉到的色调。一首诗是一个完整而不受阻碍的表达，成熟地融入文学，并被那些为其成熟的人不分割地和不受阻碍地接受。[Thoreau, "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"]
Poetry — meaning the aggregate of instances from which the idea of poetry is deduced by every new poet — has been increasingly enlarged for many centuries. The instances are numerous, varied and contradictory as instances of love; but just as 'love' is a word of powerful enough magic to make the true lover forget all its baser and falser, usages, so is 'poetry' for the true poet. [Robert Graves, "The White Goddess"]
诗歌——意指每位新诗人从中推导出诗歌概念的实例总和——在许多个世纪里不断扩大。这些实例像爱情的实例一样众多、多样且矛盾；但正如“爱情”是一个足够强大的魔法词，使真正的爱人忘记所有低劣和虚假的用法，诗歌对真正的诗人也是如此。[Robert Graves, "The White Goddess"]
Rien de ce qui ne transporte pas n'est poésie. La lyre est un instrument ailé. ("Nothing which does not transport is poetry. The lyre is a winged instrument.") [#286 from "Pensées of (Joseph) Joubert"]
