ur-poem

English

Etymology

From ur- (“primordial”) +‎ poem.

Noun

ur-poem (plural ur-poems)

  1. A poem that is believed to be a precursor or prototype to a more modern class of poetry; usually a hypothetical 'mother poem' of a genre. Jerome McGann described the ur-poem as a work "whose existence is the Idea that can be abstracted out of all concrete and written texts which have ever existed or which ever will exist"[1].

See also

References
  1. McGann, Jerome J. "The Text, the Poem and the Problem of Historical Method." Literary Theories in Praxis. Ed. Shirley F. Staton. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1987. 202-14.
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