Poetics

With a literary tradition spanning two millennia, Maya poetics has received much scholarly attention (e.g. Edmonson 1971, 1982; Tedlock 1983; Sam Colop 1994; Hull and Carrasco 2012). The Mayan languages share a common poetic tradition that is a robust example of cultural continuity between pre-Columbian and contemporary Maya communities. The poetic structures found in Hieroglyphic Maya texts are remarkably similar to those found in contemporary poetry and music. These same poetic structures are a regular part of everyday life in Maya communities, occurring in conversations, narratives, and other speech events. This chapter outlines the primary structures in the Maya poetic tradition, focusing on patterns of grammatical parallelism.