Meanings
- uncountableAn avantgarde approach to art introduced by Karel Teige in Czechoslovakia in the 1920s in reaction to the prevailing proletarian art, encouraging lyricism and an epicurean attitude.
Poetism was intended to be more of a “new aesthetic and philosophical attitude” and an “art of living”.
2017, Harri Veivo, Jean-Pierre Montier, Françoise Nicol, Beyond Given Knowledge, page 975 more examples
And it should be pointed out that poetism is less harmful to poetry than scientism, because although it may make a poetic text seem cranky or pretentious, it will not denature it.
1999, Chris Andrews, Poetry and CosmogonyPoetism was intoxicated with life, with its sensuality and lyricism, and for the most part poetism ignored life's darker aspects.
2006, Craig Cravens, Culture and Customs of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, page 155Embracing poetism represented a definite departure of the Devétsil generation from proletarian art and consequently also a "breakup" with the official line of the Communist Party.
2010, Ladislav Cabada, Zdenek Benedikt, Intellectuals and the Communist Idea, page 104In Czechoslovakia, the artistic avantgarde that flourished in the interwar years was composed of two streams, poetism dominating the artistic scene until the early thirties, and surrealism which became the major force by 1934.
2022, In the World of Signs: Essays in honour of Professor Jerzy Pelc, page 407The means to the goal was Poetism. Tiege identified the poetist revolution with the revolution of human consciousness, for both aimed to end the divide between body and spirit.
2022, Esther Levinger, Constructivism in Central Europe, page 159
Origin
Coined by Karel Teige in the 1920s as poet + -ism.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
poetism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/poetism
“poetism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/poetism. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “poetism,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/poetism.
Source: poetism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.