22 October 2015

poesy

[poh-uh-see, -zee]

noun, plural poesies.

1. the work or the art of poetic composition.
2. Archaic.
poetry in general.
verse or poetry in metrical form.
3. Obsolete.
a poem or verse used as a motto.

Compare posy (def 2).
a poem.

Origin of poesy
Latin, Greek, Middle English, Middle French
1300-1350; Middle English poesie < Middle French < Latin poēsis < Greek poíēsis poetic art, poetry, literally, a making, equivalent to poiē-, variant stem of poieîn to make + -sis -sis

Can be confused

poesy, posey, posy.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for poesy

Historical Examples

Benevolence is like poesy ; nothing is easier than to catch the appearance of it.
The Brotherhood of Consolation
Honore de Balzac

Everything was perishing—painting, sculpture, poesy, letters.
The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 9
Various

But side by side with this wayward, fanciful stream of poesy and romance ran a torrent of intenser song.
History of the English People, Volume II (of 8)
John Richard Green

Today’s quote

Learning how to operate a soul figures to take time.

– Timothy Leary

On this day

22 October 1797 – Andre-Jacques Garnerin becomes the world’s first sky-diver after jumping out of a balloon above Paris.

22 October 1920 – birth of Timothy Leary, American psychologist and author. Leary was a major proponent of the use of pscyhedelic drugs, particularly LSD and psilocybin (mushrooms). He conducted numerous psychiatric experiments using psychedelics, particularly during the 1950s and and 1960s, when the drugs were legal. LSD was banned by the USA in 1966. Leary popularised 1960′s catch-phrases such as ‘turn on, tune in and drop out’, ‘set and setting’, and ‘think for yourself and question authority’. He was friends with beat generation poets, such as Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Leary was arrested numerous times over his possession and use of drugs. He wrote a number of books on the benefits of psychedelic drugs. Leary became fascinated with computers, declaring that ‘the PC is the LSD of the 1990s’. He encouraged bohemians to ‘turn on, boot up, jack in’. Leary was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1995. He chose to stream his dying moments over the internet. Seven grams of Leary’s ashes were placed aboard a Pegasus rocket, launched on 21 April 1997. It remained in orbit around the Earth for six years until it burned up in atmosphere. Died 31 May 1996.

22 October 1932 – Notorious gangster, Pretty Boy Floyd, shot to death by FBI agents in Ohio.