Czech poetry

thumb|Alexander the Great in a diving bell: a scene from the line's namesake, the ''Roman d'Alexandre''. Alexandrine is a name used for several distinct types of verse line with related metrical structures, most of which are ultimately derived from the classical French alexandrine. The line's name derives from its use in the Medieval French ''Roman d'Alexandre of 1170, although it had already been used several decades earlier in Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne''. The foundation of most alexandrines consists of two hemistichs (half-lines) of six syllables each, separated by a caesura (a metrical p

Poetism () was an artistic program in Czechoslovakia which belongs to the avant-garde; it has never spread abroad. It was invented by members of the avant-garde association Devětsil, mainly Vítězslav Nezval and Karel Teige. It is mainly known in the literature form, but it was also intended as a lifestyle. Its poems were apolitical, optimistic, emotional, and proletaristic, describing ordinary, real things and everyday life, dealing mainly with the present time. It uses no punctuation.

The Devětsil () was an association of Czech avant-garde artists, founded in 1920 in Prague. From 1923 on there was also an active group in Brno. The movement discontinued its activities in 1930 (1927 in Brno).

Máj (Czech for the month May; ; usually květen) is a romantic poem by Karel Hynek Mácha in four cantos. It was fiercely criticized when first published, but since then has gained the status of one of the most prominent works of Czech literature; in the Czech Republic, the poem is usually on must-read list for students and is said to be one of the most often published original Czech books with over 250 editions.

Kytice z pověstí národních (A Bouquet of Folk Legends), also known by the short title Kytice (Czech for bouquet), is a collection of ballads by the Czech author Karel Jaromír Erben. The collection was first published in 1853 and originally consisted of 12 poems. Lilie was added to the second edition in 1861.