Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A verbal composition designed to convey experiences, ideas, or emotions in a vivid and imaginative way, characterized by the use of language chosen for its sound and suggestive power and by the use of literary techniques such as meter, metaphor, and rhyme.
- n. A composition in verse rather than in prose.
- n. A literary composition written with an intensity or beauty of language more characteristic of poetry than of prose.
- n. A creation, object, or experience having beauty suggestive of poetry.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A written composition in metrical form; a composition characterized by its arrangement in verses or measures, whether in blank verse or in rime: as, a lyric poem; a pastoral poem.
- n. A written composition which, though not in verse, is characterized by imaginative and poetic beauty in either the thought or the language: as, a prose poem.
Wiktionary
- n. A literary piece written in verse.
- n. A piece of writing in the tradition of poetry, an instance of poetry.
- n. A piece of poetic writing, that is with an intensity or depth of expression or inspiration greater than is usual in prose.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A metrical composition; a composition in verse written in certain measures, whether in blank verse or in rhyme, and characterized by imagination and poetic diction; -- contradistinguished from
prose . - n. A composition, not in verse, of which the language is highly imaginative or impassioned
WordNet 3.0
- n. a composition written in metrical feet forming rhythmical lines
Etymologies
- From Latin poēma, from Ancient Greek ποίημα (poiēma), from ποιέω (poiēo, "I make"). (Wiktionary)
- French poème, from Old French, from Latin poēma, from Greek poiēma, from poiein, to create. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“What's the inspiration for the title poem of your new book?”
“Here's some of the title poem of What Work Is, with a soundtrack of Levine reading it.”
The Huffington Post: Jan Herman: Philip Levine's Factory Stiffs, Society's Throw-Aways
“These lines are from the title poem of her last collection, about a park in her Morningside Heights neighborhood:”
“Nye, who grew up in San Antonio and Jerusalem, sketches vignettes of the praying methods of Muslim shepherds, embroiderers, and pilgrims in the title poem from her first book.”
The Huffington Post: Celebrating Ramadan: Poems of Muslim Faith and Islamic Culture
“The title poem describes a round with a beautiful woman, never to be seen again, who inspires the protagonist to shoot his best-ever score.”
“The title poem from Andy Hopkins' Dark Horse Pictures is featured in the current edition episode #219 of Larry Winfield's excellent Sundown Lounge podcast.”
“Poet Sage Cohen then presented the first of our poetry moments, reading to us the title poem from her poetry book Like the Heart, the World.”
Event Recap: Portland Bridge and Poetry Walk with Wortman and Cohen - Reading Local: Portland
“The title poem celebrates “freedom for the soul,” for instance, and “Happy Hour” honors the “breathless wonder” of life on earth.”
“The title poem was included in The Best American Poetry 2009.”
“The title poem, meanwhile -- which also ends with what might be an image of death -- turns out to describe a chain of people passing bags of meal from "hand to hand.”
The Washington Post: "Human Chain," a new collection of poetry by Seamus Heaney
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘poem’.
-
Muse's tacet ,to learn
Music brings silence's to raging thoughts and temperament , calm, as it is our object of definite purpose.
tacet, cadence, tempo, treble clef, penultimate, lexicon, origin, orchestra, kantele, magus, eros, coalesce and 248 more...
-
Language
word, sentence, novel, book, novella, vignette, memoir, anthology, paragraph, stanza, poem, haiku and 123 more...
-
EN - pronunciation fun
All words of the poem
The Chaos
by Gerard Nolst Trenité
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse <...abyss, ache, actual, advice, aerie, age, ague, aisles, alas, alien, alive, allowed and 406 more...
-
Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2042 more...
-
Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 566 more...
-
[Open] The Epos of Wordnik
Poems written by wordniks, for wordniks. (Look in the comments. No, they needn’t be in dactylic hexameter.)
sionnach, Kundry, alnwick, abandannad, sore eyes, sick chickens, Belgians with her..., sustainism, bilby, sumph, trews, sestertius and 4 more...
-
weddzilla's list
Weddzilla Wordie
bride, gown, wedding, green, calendar, idea, coordinator, bouquet, flowers, caterer, theme, bridesmaid and 6 more...
-
colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
-
Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
-
whitmanian
from the poetry and prose of walt whitman
celebrate, assume, loafe, grass, summer, distillation, atmosphere, undisguised, naked, mad, breath, loveroot and 291 more...
-
lemongrass's Words
ineffable, diode, abraxas, neologism, algorithm, schadenfreude, heresiology, vague, cathartic, quixotic, apocrypha?, quintessence and 103 more...
-
mandarine's Words
antepenultimate, metonymy, synecdoche, pop, kern, inherit, clique, scrumptious, macerate, murmur, kerning, veranda and 1068 more...
-
Samme's Words
soliloquy, meander, creativity, magic, discovery, happiness, empowerment, abundance, [magnificent], iridescent, artistic, magical and 694 more...
-
courtneyah's Words
sigh, troglodyte, lithe, cambium, bark, poem, trochee, minute, ablution, hermeneutic, dogwood, mystique and 98 more...
-
Words Covered in Faery Dust (P)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
pagan, page, pageant, pageboy, pagoda, paisley, paladin, palfrey, paling, pampas grass, pan, panoply and 194 more...
-
soul mate
soul mate, soul mates, soul, portishead, wounded, death, depression, hurt, the cure, pain, longing, rat and 424 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for poem.
sionnach lonely starlet
blue-winged
standeth
like beats
pentatomic Nov 8, 2011
hernesheir From the "recently viewed" column on Wordnik, a series of consecutive entries:
crackwhore
suddenly and swiftly driven heavenwards
perceptually
bridling up at the mysterious air
chassé-croisé
the lips of the wise Nov 8, 2011
pterodactyl See this map for American pronunciation. Apr 10, 2008
chained_bear Me too, muamor! Here's to creepy poetry! Feb 27, 2008
muamor jackass comrade ornate sofa
deck-a-bitch wah
caterpillar charlatan
vag disgrace
truth impulsive
dubious
prudent
scapegoat
_________________
Sometimes the recent words list turns into a creepy poem in me head. Feb 27, 2008
brtom A great poem is for ages and ages in common, and for all degrees and complexions, and all departments and sects, and for a woman as much as a man, and a man as much as a woman. A great poem is no finish to a man or woman, but rather a beginning. Whitman, Preface 1855 Dec 9, 2006