National Poetry Day 2024: What's it all about?

Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, it's poetry time!

Poetry is used all around the world as an important way to express how people are feeling and it is a great way of storytelling.

National Poetry Day 2024 is celebrated on Thursday 3 October and is a day to highlight the impact poetry has on people's lives.

Each year has a different theme, and this year's theme is 'counting'.

Poems can come in all different shapes and sizes, from raps to sonnets, and can be a powerful way to communicate.

Find out more about how you can get involved in celebrating National Poetry Day below...

What is National Poetry Day?

This year's theme is 'counting'

National Poetry Day was first celebrated in 1994 by the charity Forward Arts Foundation, with the aim of encouraging people to make, celebrate and share poetry.

Now it's the UK's biggest celebration of poetry and last year more than 1.5 million people joined in.

It's also a way to learn about celebrated poets throughout history and their impact on the world.

Each year has a different theme to help give people an idea for their poems.

This theme can be used in lots of creative ways, as everyone has a different meaning or understanding of it.

For example, for counting, you could write a poem about 'counting down the days' or making something 'count' - there's no right or wrong!

Previous themes have included refuge, home, the environment, truth and change.

How can you get involved in National Poetry Day?

There are lots of different ways to celebrate and join in with National Poetry Day.

Here are just a few...

Read - There are millions of great poems out there, and you can celebrate by reading or listening to a few of them. Whether they're classics by Shakespeare, or modern ones by Joseph Coelho, there are heaps of ways to get inspired and discover new poets and poems that you like.

Write - Feeling inspired? Why not have a go at writing your own poem! Whether it's rap, acrostic, haiku, sonnet, ballad or limerick, there's loads of different styles to try out.

Share - Why not share the love? If there's a poem or song you think someone might like, then why not share it with them? You could also go to special poetry events or even read your work out loud to friends and family.

Record-breaking attempt - This year poet Laura Mucha is asking children around the country to help her co-write a poem about ‘what counts’ and try to break a Guinness World Record for the largest poetry lesson (multi-venue).

So far, more than 230,000 children from over 1,500 schools have joined, and the finished poem will be displayed all over the country.