Abstract: The present paper attempts to shed some illuminating light on poetry and its position in the
contemporary literary scene, following so many radical changes in the form and content of poetry.
Metapoetry has become a recurrent topic that has its own supporters and adversaries. The article
shows in the introduction the history of poetry and its long tradition of epics and narrative poetry.
Also it shows how poetry in the twentieth century has some parallels with painting, and how the
two arts constitute a reciprocal relationship. The main argument of the paper hinges on four writers
from different parts of the world who share this interest in metapoetry, and what it can bring to the
reader and author alike. The first writer chosen here is Ismail Kadar (Albanian) who is still alive
and a French citizen. His poem. Poetry is a typical one that belongs to metapoetry, as Kadare
shows his surprise to enter willy-nilly this poetic maze. The second writer is the Chilean poet Pablo
Neruda. In Ars Poetica (Art of Poetry). Neruda presents the squalor and bad things of reality as the
background for the sublimating role of poetry. British poet and poet Laureate, Ted Hughes s The
Thought Fox discusses the writer s block. Lebanese Shawqi Beze a The Poet highlights the daily
struggles of the poet in his strenuous efforts of pursuing the most appropriate terms and images in
his poem. The conclusion sums up the main arguments of the paper.