“Poetika”, which is a term firstly used in “Büyük Doğu” (Great East) Review in our literature, is derived from the word “poi ein” meaning “to do, to produce, and to create”. As a literary term, it expresses a poetry movement which poets belong to, or which they attach importance to. While the work titled “Poetika” written by Aristoteles is deemed to be the first work written in this field, this concept coming a long way on various occasions afterwards has started being applied as a method of research as of the 20th century. It is possible to encounter such poetic views in the divan poems, particularly in the collection of biographies, in some preambles, and in the copyright parts of the works. Besides, many divan poets expressed their thoughts in miscellaneous parts of their collected works relating to the poet and poetry. Revealing the opinions related with the poet and poetry is important in respect to how the viewpoint of a poet about poems is, and to evaluate the understanding of poetry of that period. It is also possible to see the opinions and comments on the poetry in general, and on the poet’s own poems, and on the poems of the other poets in the Divan (the Collected Works) of Sünbülzade Vehbi, who was one of the divan poets of the 18th century when there were many different trends and literary diversity.In this study, general comments related to poets and poetry taking part in the Divan (the Collected Works) of Sünbülzade Vehbi who adopted a different understanding of poetry. On this occasion, the poet’s viewpoint on the poem and poetry in general as well as on the Divan poetry in his period have been tried to be revealed.

Keywords: Poetika, Sünbülzade Vehbi, the Divan literature, 18th century, poem, poet.