A precise source may not be identifiable with poetry and this idea may have accounted for the plurality of the word source into sources. First traceable source of poetry is the nature; the poetry itself is as old as nature. The birth and death of people each day, the way in which day chameleons into night, the miraculous growth of seedlings and feelings among people send poetic signals to people's minds oftentimes. The natural occurrences like war, storm, hurricane etc. are poetic enough. Man necessitates the worship and praise of a supernatural being, God in order to interrupt the nature as to violence in its occurrence because he(man) realises his limitations with the nature through his interaction with it.
Man praises God with a touch of hyper-exggeration. The title elétÃlukárabÃajere, a Yoruba way of praising God, meaning, one who has extremely perforated ear for listening. Hyper-exaggeration is seen as a prominent feature of poetry. In Kofi Awonoor's songs of sorrow, he writes: ...I'm in the world's extreme corner... This verse also lends credence to the claim of hyper-exaggeration in poetry. By being in the extreme corner, he simply meant, either being isolated or being in a difficult situation.
Another traceable source is that man, regardless of race or colour pigmentation, is an animist. He believes in some superstitions. Even though technology has been waning some of these superstitious beliefs, there are still remnants of animism in man. Man believes in spirituality in trees, waters, stones, etc. This point is verifiable in the worldwide belief about the Bermuda Triangle. This area of the sea had been believed to be highly spiritual and evil due to some mysterious occurrences around it that had happen over time. Even now, nobody has been able to account for the disappearances of aeroplanes, ships and jets around this area. Shakespeare also wrote about the Bermuda in his The Tempest.