Poetic Terms Dictionary
Poetic Form

Heroic Couplet

'Heroic' because used in translations of heroic (epic) poetry. The dominant English verse form from Dryden (1660s) through Pope (1740s); Keats and Byron later revived it.

Definition

Two rhyming lines in iambic pentameter, typically self-contained in sense and closed by punctuation.

Example

Pope: 'True wit is nature to advantage dressed, / What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.'

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