The poem, the structured and originally sung speech, is not only the beginning but also the royal discipline of literature. As the success of poetry festivals and slam poetry, as well as anthologies like Ludwig Reiner's "Eternal Spring" and various new poetry releases, demonstrates, poems are popular. The number of amateur poets and poetry readers is, as can be seen on the internet, enormous. However, it is also true that modern poetry is often enigmatic and requires explanation. After his successful and widely praised "Reading Guide," which primarily focused on the novel, Ulrich Greiner, a literary critic for ZEIT, now dedicates his new book to poetry. In seven chapters, he answers the question: What is a poem? Knowledgeable and insightful, serving as a kind of first aid for laypeople and a rediscovery for connoisseurs, these chapters provide access to the history of poetry.