Poetic Terms Dictionary
Structure

Couplet

From French couplet: pair. The heroic couplet (iambic pentameter AA) was the dominant English verse form from Dryden through Pope.

Definition

Two successive lines of poetry that rhyme and generally form a self-contained unit of meaning.

Example

Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 ends: 'So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.'

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