World Poetry Day
Next: March 21, 2027
Send someone a few good lines.
The story
Where it comes from
UNESCO adopted 21 March as World Poetry Day at its 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999. The aim was to support the world's many languages through poetry, and to give endangered languages more chances to be heard. Poetry is practised in every culture and on every continent, often long before it is written down, and UNESCO treats it as one of humanity's most treasured forms of cultural and linguistic expression, a way for people to speak across borders.
How it's celebrated
UNESCO asks people to honour poets, revive the oral tradition of poetry recitals, read, write and teach poetry, and bring it together with theatre, dance, music and painting. Libraries, schools and cafés hold readings and open-mic nights. The simplest way to join in is to copy out a poem you love, or write four lines of your own, and send it to someone.
Did you know
- The Shijing (Classic of Poetry), the first anthology of Chinese poetry, holds 305 poems, most thought to date from about 1000 to 600 BCE.
- The Malay pantun, a four-line verse with an a-b-a-b rhyme, was inscribed on UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2020 on a joint nomination by Malaysia and Indonesia; Brunei joined the listing in 2025.
- Pantuns are still recited at weddings, customary rituals and official ceremonies, and most are about love for a partner, family, community or the natural world.
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