Michael Beliveau, age 12, of Scarborough, Maine, for his question:

When were the first poems written?

Some anthropologists claim that civilization sprang from the inspiration of poets and artists. Ages before the dawn of history, our ancestors created and enjoyed the arts of music and dancing, painting and carving. Most likely the first poems were simple sounds chanted to prehistoric drumbeats and dancing feet. The great art of poetry had to wait for a deeper understanding of words and language. Poetic accounts of noble deeds were told and retold. The Vikings, for example, recited their adventures fox centuries before they learned to read and write.

Every generation had its small quota of inspired poets, but most of the earliest written records are lost. A few precious poems of India and Egypt, China and Mesopotamia have survived several thousand years. Recently a story written on ancient clay tablets was deciphered. Its poetic lines described the school days of a Babylonian boy who lived 4,000 years ago. Mankind had the gift of poetry right from the beginning and no doubt the first poems were composed when words were first used to express feelings.