Rosario Castellanos: , The Selected Poems, by Magda Bogin), a polemical allusion to a well-known verse by Spanish Romantic poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, in which he tells his beloved that she is poetry.

Alejandro Jodorowsky: Later films, comic books, and psychomagic: …movie, Poesía sin fin (2016; Endless Poetry), was also autobiographical, chronicling Jodorowsky as a young man.

Spanish literature: Poetry: Leaders of postwar poesía social (social poetry) are sometimes referred to as a “Basque triumvirate”: Gabriel Celaya, a prewar Surrealist who became a leading spokesman for the opposition to Franco; Blas de Otero, an existentialist writing in the vein of Antonio Machado’s Campos de Castilla; and Ángela Figuera,…

Luis Palés Matos: The collection Poesía, 1915–56 (1957) reveals his more personal side as a lyric poet and as a melancholy man, ill at ease in the modern world.

Alberto Lista: His Poesías (1822, 1837; “Poems”) show faint influences of the Romantic movement. Among his best-known works are El imperio de la estupidez (1798; “The Empire of Stupidity”), a critical work in the manner of Alexander Pope’s Dunciad; Ensayos literarios y críticos (1844; “Literary and Critical Essays”);…

Esteban Manuel de Villegas: …an early book of poems, Poesías eróticas y amatorias (1617–18).

Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda: …1841 into a volume entitled Poesías líricas (“Lyrical Poems”). Combining the classical style of Manuel José Quintana with her own romantic vision, tinged with a pessimism born of much personal suffering, these poems rank among the most poignant in all Spanish literature. Her plays, distinctive for their poetic diction and…

Ippolito Pindemonte: … (1779), and one of lyrics, Poesie campestri (1788; “Rural Poetry”). Both showed a sensitivity to nature and the influence of the contemporary English poets Thomas Gray and Edward Young. A stay in Paris inspired the poem “La Francia” (1789) and a prose satire on political conditions in Europe, Abaritte (1790).…

Melchiorre Cesarotti: …of the Ossian poems (Poesie di Ossian, 1763–72; modern ed., 1924) revived interest in nature poetry. Two important essays also encouraged would-be Romantic writers: Saggio sulla filosofia del gusto (1785; “Essay on the Philosophy of Taste”) and Saggio sulla filosofia delle lingue (1785; “Essay on the Philosophy of Languages”),…

Louise-Victorine Ackermann: …real reputation rests on the Poésies, premières poésies, poésies philosophiques (1874; “Poetry, First Poetry, Philosophical Poetry”), a volume of sombre and powerful verse, expressing her revolt against human suffering.

poetry, literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. (Read Britannica’s biography of this author, Howard Nemerov.) Poetry is a vast subject, as old as history and

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: Poet and Dancer (1993) is the story of a destructive friendship between two women living in New York City.

Jim Dine: He also illustrated Guillaume Apollinaire’s The Poet Assassinated (1968) and Arthur Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell (1976). Dine was the subject of several short films by his wife, including Jim Dine: A Self-Portrait on the Walls (1995), which was nominated for an Academy Award. Major retrospectives of Dine’s work were…

Federico García Lorca: Later poetry and plays of Federico García Lorca: …en Nueva York (published 1940; Poet in New York), a series of poems whose dense, at times hallucinatory images, free-verse lines, and thematic preoccupation with urban decay and social injustice mark an audacious departure from Lorca’s previous work. The collection is redolent of Charles Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe, T.S. Eliot,…

poet laureate, title first granted in England in the 17th century for poetic excellence. Its holder is a salaried member of the British royal household, but the post has come to be free of specific poetic duties. In the United States, a similar position was created in 1936. The title of the office

Helen Archibald Clarke and Charlotte Endymion Porter: …Porter launched a new monthly, Poet Lore, “devoted to Shakespeare, Browning, and the Comparative Study of Literature.” The magazine found an immediate and growing audience among the proliferating literary clubs and societies across the nation, most if not all of them sharing the Victorian literary standards and interests of the…

Antônio de Castro Alves was a Romantic poet whose sympathy for the Brazilian abolitionist cause won him the name “poet of the slaves.” While still a student Castro Alves produced a play that brought him to the attention of José de Alencar and Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazilian literary

Dragon Boat Festival, prominent and festive Chinese holiday that originated at least 1,500 years ago and features dragon boat races and rice dumplings. It is one of the three “festivals of the living,” along with the Chinese New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival. Known as Duanwu Jie in Mandarin and

jasmine: Major species: Common jasmine, or poet’s jasmine (Jasminum officinale), native to Iran, produces fragrant white flowers that are the source of attar of jasmine used in perfumery. It is widely cultivated for its shining leaves and clusters of flowers that bloom in summer. Winter jasmine (J. nudiflorum),…

narcissus: Major species: jonquilla), and poet’s narcissus (N. poeticus). An oil from jonquil flowers is used in perfumes.

Rita Dove: … (1992); a collection of essays, The Poet’s World (1995); and a verse play, The Darker Face of the Earth (published 1994).

Federico García Lorca: Later poetry and plays of Federico García Lorca: …en Nueva York (published 1940; Poet in New York), a series of poems whose dense, at times hallucinatory images, free-verse lines, and thematic preoccupation with urban decay and social injustice mark an audacious departure from Lorca’s previous work. The collection is redolent of Charles Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe, T.S. Eliot,…

Ben Jonson: Theatrical career: 1600) and Poetaster (1601). Even in these, however, there is the paradox of contempt for human behaviour hand in hand with a longing for human order.

poète maudit, (French: “accursed poet”), in literary criticism, the poet as an outcast of modern society, despised by its rulers who fear his penetrating insights into their spiritual emptiness. The phrase was first applied by Paul Verlaine in Les Poètes maudits (1884), a collection of critical and

Stéphane Mallarmé: …the series of articles entitled Les Poètes maudits (“The Accursed Poets”) published by Verlaine in 1883 and the praise lavished on him by J.-K. Huysmans in his novel À rebours (“The Wrong Way”) in 1884 led to his wide recognition as the most eminent French poet of the day. A…

Italian literature: Poetry after World War II: …standard anthology of 20th-century poetry, Poeti italiani del Novecento (1978; “Italian Poets of the 20th Century”).

Italian literature: Poetry after World War II: …of contemporary literature Stefano Giovanardi, Poeti italiani del secondo Novecento, 1945–1995 (1996; “Italian Poets of the Second Half of the 20th Century, 1945–1995”), introduced a useful taxonomy. Cucchi and Giovanardi recognized that, in talking about the new poetry, they had to take into account the older, established poets who continued…

poetic diction, grandiose, elevated, and unfamiliar language, supposedly the prerogative of poetry but not of prose. The earliest critical reference to poetic diction is Aristotle’s remark in the Poetics that it should be clear without being “mean.” But subsequent generations of poets were more

Codex Regius: …designated by scholars as the Poetic Edda, or Elder Edda (see Edda). It is the oldest such collection, the best-known of all Icelandic books, and an Icelandic national treasure.

poetic imagery, the sensory and figurative language used in poetry. The object or experience that a poet is contemplating is usually perceived by that poet in a relationship to some second object or event, person, or thing. The poet may be thought to transfer from this second object certain

John Singleton: His next film, Poetic Justice (1993), starred Jackson’s sister, singer Janet Jackson. Singleton’s other films included Higher Learning (1995), a drama investigating a variety of social issues as it follows the lives of three college freshmen (1993); Rosewood (1997), based on a true story of racial violence in…

poetic justice, in literature, an outcome in which vice is punished and virtue rewarded, usually in a manner peculiarly or ironically appropriate. The term was coined by the English literary critic Thomas Rymer in the 17th century, when it was believed that a work of literature should uphold moral

poetic license, the right assumed by poets to alter or invert standard syntax or depart from common diction or pronunciation to comply with the metrical or tonal requirements of their writing. As a general rule, poetry has a carefully controlled verbal structure. The metre of the poem, the pattern

Danish literature: Poetic Realism: New elements of reason and realism appeared after the first quarter of the century in the works of Poul Møller, who wrote the first Danish novel on contemporary life, En dansk students eventyr (1824; “The Adventures of a Danish Student”), as well as…

Lazare Meerson: …of the development of French poetic realism, a complete break from the expressionism and impressionism popular at the time.

rhythm, in poetry, the patterned recurrence, within a certain range of regularity, of specific language features, usually features of sound. Although difficult to define, rhythm is readily discriminated by the ear and the mind, having as it does a physiological basis. It is universally agreed to

Joseph Cornell: …(Soap Bubble Set), his first shadow box of the type for which he became best known. Cornell’s shadow boxes—or “memory boxes” or “poetic theatres,” as he called them—took the form of glass-fronted boxes containing found objects and collaged elements arranged in enigmatic, often poetic, juxtaposition. Recurrent themes and motifs included…

dance: Thus, Aristotle’s statement in the Poetics that dance is rhythmic movement whose purpose is “to represent men’s characters as well as what they do and suffer” refers to the central role that dance played in classical Greek theatre, where the chorus through its movements reenacted the themes of the drama…

Lodovico Castelvetro: …the Poetics of Aristotle, called La poetica di Aristotele vulgarizzata (“Aristotle’s Poetics Popularized”), was published in 1570. Though often erroneous in transmitting Aristotle’s ideas, La poetica was extremely influential in the history of drama and of criticism. Castelvetro emphasized realism in drama, clarified the distinction between rhetoric and poetry, and…

Gian Giorgio Trissino: His La poetica (1529) used Italian poetry to exemplify his theory.

poetic justice, in literature, an outcome in which vice is punished and virtue rewarded, usually in a manner peculiarly or ironically appropriate. The term was coined by the English literary critic Thomas Rymer in the 17th century, when it was believed that a work of literature should uphold moral

Alphonse de Lamartine: Early life and Méditations poétiques: …his first collection of poetry, Méditations poétiques, which became immensely successful because of its new romantic tone and sincerity of feeling. It brought to French poetry a new music; the themes were at the same time intimate and religious. If the vocabulary remained that of the somewhat faded rhetoric of…

William Congreve: Legacy of William Congreve: …was praised in Giles Jacob’s Poetical Register (1719), where he is described as being “so far from being puff’d up with Vanity…that he abounds with Humility and good Nature. He does not shew so much the Poet as the Gentleman.” The last phrase will serve as a comment on the…

William Blake: Blake as a poet: …volume of 70 pages titled Poetical Sketches, with the attribution on the title page reading simply, “By W.B.” It contained an “advertisement” by Reverend Mathew that stated, “Conscious of the irregularities and defects to be found in almost every page, his friends have still believed that they possessed a poetic…

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: … (1824); she also edited his Poetical Works (1839), with long and invaluable notes, and his prose works. Her Journal is a rich source of Shelley biography, and her letters are an indispensable adjunct.

prosody: Quantitative metres: …on prosody, remarked in his Poetical Works (1912) that the difficulty of adapting English syllables to the Greek rules is “very great, and even deterrent.” Longfellow’s hexameter is in reality a syllable-stress line of five dactyls and a final trochee; syllabic quantity plays no part in determining the metre.

Bahāʾ al-Dīn Zuhayr: Palmer, The Poetical Works of Behá-ed-Dín Zoheir of Egypt, 2 vol. (1876–77). Among his poems are qasida (odes) of praise to members of the Ayyūbid dynasty or to officials; other poems include those devoted to love found and lost and to friendship.

George Moses Horton: …of fears of punishment, The Poetical Works of George M. Horton, The Colored Bard of North Carolina (1845) addresses the issue of slavery in a subtle manner. His last and largest volume of verse is Naked Genius (1865).

Aleksandr Afanasev: …vozzreniya slavyan na prirodu (The Slav’s Poetical Views of Nature) in three volumes, which provided the first synthesis of the theories of the Mythological school, a 19th-century Romantic literary movement that drew its inspiration from folklore. The Mythological school was grounded in the aesthetic philosophy of F.W. von Schelling…

dance: Thus, Aristotle’s statement in the Poetics that dance is rhythmic movement whose purpose is “to represent men’s characters as well as what they do and suffer” refers to the central role that dance played in classical Greek theatre, where the chorus through its movements reenacted the themes of the drama…

Danish literature: Poetic Realism: New elements of reason and realism appeared after the first quarter of the century in the works of Poul Møller, who wrote the first Danish novel on contemporary life, En dansk students eventyr (1824; “The Adventures of a Danish Student”), as well as…

Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger: His Poetiske skrifter (1805; “Poetic Writings”) contains two long cycles of lyric poems and Aladdin, a poetic drama on the writer’s own life, with the lamp of the story symbolizing intuitive poetic genius. Oehlenschläger was by now recognized as an important Romantic poet and an able…

Poetry, U.S. poetry magazine founded in Chicago in 1912 by Harriet Monroe, who became its longtime editor. It became the principal organ for modern poetry of the English-speaking world and survived through World War II. Because its inception coincided with the Chicago literary renaissance, it is

Marianne Moore: …“The Labors of Hercules,” and “Poetry.” The last named is the source of her often-quoted admonition that poets should present imaginary gardens with real toads in them.

poetry, literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. (Read Britannica’s biography of this author, Howard Nemerov.) Poetry is a vast subject, as old as history and

aesthetics: Major concerns of 18th-century aesthetics: …is James Beattie’s Essay on Poetry and Music as They Affect the Mind (1776), in which the author rejects the view of music as a representational (imitative) art form and argues that expression is the true source of musical excellence. Another example is provided by Denis Diderot in his didactic…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Last years (1817–32) of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: …fourth section of his autobiography Poetry and Truth, completing the story of his life up to his departure for Weimar in 1775; he compiled an account of his time in Rome in 1787–88, Zweiter Römischer Aufenthalt (1829; “Second Sojourn in Rome”); and above all he wrote part two of Faust,…

R.S. Thomas: …Thomas’s later volumes, starting with Poetry for Supper (1958), the subjects of his poetry remained the same, yet his questions became more specific, his irony more bitter, and his compassion deeper. In such later works as The Way of It (1977), Frequencies (1978), Between Here and Now (1981), and Later…

Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize: …annual prize given by the Poetry Foundation—an independent literary organization and publisher—to an American poet for lifetime achievement. The prize, which comes with an award of $100,000, was established in 1986 by philanthropist Ruth Lilly. It is considered one of the most prestigious awards in the field of poetry and…

Ted Kooser: …the Bohemian Alps (2002) and The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets (2005), a guidebook to writing poetry.

Bernard Patrick O’Dowd: …an important prose pamphlet “Poetry Militant” (1909), O’Dowd, a political and philosophical radical, argued that the poet should educate, propagandize, and indoctrinate. His later work included The Bush (1912), a long poem about the Australian nation; Alma Venus! and Other Verses (1921), social satire in verse; and The Poems:…

qawwali: Sufi Muslim poetry that aims to lead listeners to a state of religious ecstasy—to a spiritual union with Allah (God). The music was popularized outside of South Asia in the late 20th century, owing largely to its promotion by the world-music industry.

Muriel Spark: …Poetry Society and editor of The Poetry Review (1947–49). She later published a series of critical biographies of literary figures and editions of 19th-century letters, including Child of Light: A Reassessment of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1951; rev. ed., Mary Shelley, 1987), John Masefield (1953), and The Brontë Letters (1954). Spark…

slam poetry: …is performed at events called poetry slams, or simply slams. The name slam came from how the audience has the power to praise or, sometimes, destroy a poem and from the high-energy performance style of the poets.

fleshly school of poetry, a group of late 19th-century English poets associated with Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The term was invented by the Scottish author Robert Williams Buchanan (1841–1901) and appeared as the title of a pseudonymous article in the Contemporary Review (October 1871) in which he

Poetry, U.S. poetry magazine founded in Chicago in 1912 by Harriet Monroe, who became its longtime editor. It became the principal organ for modern poetry of the English-speaking world and survived through World War II. Because its inception coincided with the Chicago literary renaissance, it is

International PEN, international organization of writers. The original PEN was founded in London in 1921 by the English novelist John Galsworthy, and it has since grown to include writers worldwide. The name PEN is an acronym standing for “poets, playwrights, editors, essayists, and novelists.”

The position of poet laureate of the United States is somewhat different from that of Britain, where the title was first established in the 17th century. Whereas the British office renders the laureate a salaried member of the British royal household, the American poet laureate acts as the chair of

John Bell: …issued the 109 volumes of The Poets of Great Britain complete from Chaucer to Churchill series. He influenced later publishing practice by introducing into his books illustrations prepared by competent artists and related to the text. In addition, he founded a weekly newspaper, a monthly illustrated magazine, and various other…

J. Hillis Miller: …emphasized theological concerns, as in Poets of Reality: Six Twentieth-Century Writers (1965), The Form of Victorian Fiction: Thackeray, Dickens, Trollope, George Eliot, Meredith, and Hardy (1968), and The Disappearance of God: Five Nineteenth-Century Writers (1963). He drew heavily on ideas of the absence or death of the divine. By 1970,…

war of the theatres, in English literary history, conflict involving the Elizabethan playwrights Ben Jonson, John Marston, and Thomas Dekker. It covered a period when Jonson was writing for one children’s company of players and Marston for another, rival group. In 1599 Marston presented a mildly

Kazimierz Tetmajer: His nostalgic and pessimistic Poezje (“Poetry”), published in eight series between 1891 and 1924, shows the influence of the Romantic poet and playwright Juliusz Słowacki and of French and Belgian verse. Tetmajer’s collection of sketches and tales Na skalnym Podhalu (1903–10; Tales of the Tatras), written almost entirely in…

Polish literature: Romanticism: His two-volume Poezye (1822–23; “Poems”) was the first major literary event of the period. The second volume included parts two and four of Dziady (Forefathers’ Eve), in which he combined folklore and mystic atmosphere to create a new kind of Romantic drama. Mickiewicz wrote his greatest works…

Polish literature: Romanticism: His two-volume Poezye (1822–23; “Poems”) was the first major literary event of the period. The second volume included parts two and four of Dziady (Forefathers’ Eve), in which he combined folklore and mystic atmosphere to create a new kind of Romantic drama. Mickiewicz wrote his greatest works…

poffertjes, small Dutch pancakes, traditionally served with powdered sugar and knobs of butter. They are made of a batter that typically includes yeast and buckwheat flour, yielding a light, fluffy texture. The batter is poured over a hot cast-iron pan with shallow half-spherical molds, and then

poacher, (family Agonidae), any of the marine fishes of the family Agonidae (order Scorpaeniformes), a group of approximately 50 species that also includes alligatorfishes, sea poachers, and starsnouts. Poachers live in cold water, on the bottom, and are found mainly in the northern Pacific Ocean.

illusion: Visual perceptual illusions: The Poggendorff illusion depends on the steepness of the intersecting lines. As obliqueness is decreased, the illusion becomes less compelling. In the Zöllner illusion, the cross-hatching disturbs the perception of parallel lines. A figure seen touching converging lines, as in the Ponzo illusion, seems larger than…

Detlev, baron von Liliencron: His loosely constructed satiric epic Poggfred, ein kunter-buntes Epos (1896; “Poggfred, a Topsy-Turvy Epic”) achieved some success.

Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini was an Italian humanist and calligrapher, foremost among scholars of the early Renaissance as a rediscoverer of lost, forgotten, or neglected Classical Latin manuscripts in the monastic libraries of Europe. While working in Florence as a copyist of manuscripts,

ancient Italic people: Archaeological evidence: …finds from the site of Poggio Civitate (Murlo) near Siena, where excavations (begun in 1966) have revealed a huge building of the Archaic period with rammed earth walls, measuring about 197 feet on each side and featuring a large court in the middle. It was adorned with life-size terra-cotta figures,…

Western dance: Social dance: …and dances such as the pogo, in which dancers jumped in place to the music’s rhythm. Partner dancing never disappeared completely, however, and was especially prominent in the “western-swing” dancing of American country and western music.

Poco, American band of the 1970s and ’80s that strongly influenced the development of country rock. The original members were Richie Furay (b. May 9, 1944, Yellow Springs, Ohio, U.S.), George Grantham (b. November 20, 1947, Cordell, Oklahoma), Randy Meisner (b. March 8, 1946, Scottsbluff,

Pogo, popular 20th-century American comic-strip character, a cartoon possum who was the main actor in an often politically charged daily newspaper strip of the same name. Pogo Possum represented Everyman, though he was a classic comedic straight man among the denizens of Okefenokee Swamp, a

Pogo, popular 20th-century American comic-strip character, a cartoon possum who was the main actor in an often politically charged daily newspaper strip of the same name. Pogo Possum represented Everyman, though he was a classic comedic straight man among the denizens of Okefenokee Swamp, a

Pogonia, genus of two species of terrestrial orchids (family Orchidaceae) native to temperate zones of Asia and North America. Pogonia species have a slender rootstock and usually bear one leaf about halfway up the stem and several at the base. The pinkish flowers have an odour similar to

Pogonia: The Asian pogonia (P. japonica) grows in moist open areas of Japan, Korea, and parts of China.

Pogonia: Snakemouth (P. ophioglossoides), also known as rose pogonia and adder’s mouth, is common in bogs and swamps of eastern North America. The plant is about 8 to 53 cm (3 to 21 inches) tall. The Asian pogonia (P. japonica) grows in moist open areas of…

drum: …an air bladder; and the sea drum, or black drum (Pogonias cromis), a gray or coppery red, western Atlantic fish.

Pogonia: …other genera in the tribe Pogonieae are commonly known as “pogonias.” The small whorled pogonia (Isotria medeoloides) and the large whorled pogonia (I. verticillata) are North American orchids and the only members of their genus. The small whorled pogonia is listed as an endangered species in many of the states…

tinkerbird, any of several species of tiny barbets, which, at 9 cm (3.5 inches), are the smallest of the family Capitonidae (order Piciformes). Tinkerbirds constitute the genus Pogoniulus. They are named for their metallic call—like a tinker mending pots—repeated unendingly in African forest and

tinkerbird: …the best known is the yellow-fronted tinkerbird (P. chrysoconus) of east-central Africa. It is glossy black above, with yellow rump and forehead, white eye stripes, and black moustache mark; the breast is pale gray, the belly greenish yellow.

beard worm, (family Siboglinidae), any of a group of polychaetes (marine worms) constituting the family Siboglinidae. Beard worms live sedentary lives in long protective tubes on the seafloor throughout the world. The common name beard worm refers to the beardlike mass of pinnate (featherlike)

beard worm, (family Siboglinidae), any of a group of polychaetes (marine worms) constituting the family Siboglinidae. Beard worms live sedentary lives in long protective tubes on the seafloor throughout the world. The common name beard worm refers to the beardlike mass of pinnate (featherlike)

patchouli, (Pogostemon cablin), aromatic flowering plant of the mint family (Lamiaceae), the leaves of which are a source of essential oil that is used as a fragrance in perfumes, cosmetics, and incense. Patchouli is native to tropical Asia, where it is widely cultivated and has been used for

pogrom, (Russian: “devastation,” or “riot”), a mob attack, either approved or condoned by authorities, against the persons and property of a religious, racial, or national minority. The term is usually applied to attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The

magnitude: In 1850 the English astronomer Norman Robert Pogson proposed the system presently in use. One magnitude is defined as a ratio of brightness of 2.512 times; e.g., a star of magnitude 5.0 is 2.512 times as bright as one of magnitude 6.0. Thus, a difference of five magnitudes corresponds to…

Elvis Costello: …bassist of the British band the Pogues, the following year.

menhaden, any of several species of valuable Atlantic coastal fishes in the genus Brevoortia of the herring family (Clupeidae), utilized for oil, fish meal, and fertilizer. Menhaden have a deep body, sharp-edged belly, large head, and tooth-edged scales. Adults are about 37.5 cm (about 15 inches)

Cape gooseberry, (Physalis peruviana), species of ground cherry in the nightshade family (Solanaceae) and its edible fruit. The plant is native to Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru and was widely grown in South Africa beginning in the 19th century, which is likely the source of its common name. It is

Hifikepunye Pohamba was a Namibian politician who served as the second president of Namibia (2005–15). He served as the president of the SWAPO Party of Namibia (2007–15). Pohamba was born in a small village in northern Owambo (Ovamboland) when Namibia was still known as South West Africa and was