This chapter focuses on the rise of colonial poetry between the 16th and 18th centuries. The way in which Spain and Portugal approached the colonization of the New World had a deep impact on the development of poetry in Spanish America and Brazil. Key to this process was the early establishment of the printing press and universities in Mexico City and Lima, which allowed for the growth of a local literary identity revolving around a sophisticated lettered community. This is the same that partly assimilated and partly obliterated indigenous cultures and traditions, though people such as Bernardino de Sahagún and the mestizo Inca Garcilaso de la Vega contributed significantly to its preservation. European literary trends reached the New World and established themselves in the sixteenth century, which saw the development of epic and religious poetry. Both played a crucial role enforcing imperialism and evangelization, though texts such as Ercilla’s La Araucana presented also the ambiguities of colonial discourse and the devastating effects of war. Other genres such as Petrarchism and satire allowed for further transatlantic dialogues strengthening the literary culture of the New World. Poetry thus played a key role in political and aesthetic discussions that shaped Latin American identity.