Bhubaneswar, Oct 6 (IANS): Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday urged schools to make poetry reading and appreciation a compulsory part of their curriculum.

"I urge schools to make poetry reading and appreciation a compulsory part of the curriculum. I also ask the universities to encourage literature, arts and humanities education.

"I believe that it is crucial to promote arts and culture to build an enlightened and healthy society. Arts nurture creativity in the society. Without a creative voice, the society will become stagnant," said the Vice President while addressing the valedictory ceremony of the 39th World Congress of Poets at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology University here.

"Poets can be influencers and opinion-makers. They have the unique potential to shape thoughts, feelings and attitudes. I am confident that they will use this tremendous power at their disposal, to build a better world," Naidu said.

"Artists enliven lives. Some artists transform our lives. They change our perception, our world view. Artists are the conscience keepers of the society. They constantly question the absurd and the illogical and help instil positive values in the society."

He said that poetry helps to promote peace and harmony in the society and foster universal brotherhood.

"Poetry is one of the finest expressions of human emotion. It conveys deep insights, a wide range of emotions and elevates the human experience to the highest levels of consciousness. It has a great impact on the inner chemistry of human emotions, on how we perceive, how we respond and how we behave," the Vice President said.

Informing that India's tryst with poetry was as old as its civilization, he said that great Indian epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were among the finest specimens of poetry ever written.

The epics are celebrated world over for grandeur of their themes, extraordinary literary heights and depth of messages they convey, he added.