Closed couplet

Closed couplet

In poetics, closed couplets are two line units of verse that do not extend their sense beyond the line's end. Furthermore, the lines are usually rhymed. When the lines are in iambic pentameter, they are referred to as heroic verse. However, Samuel Butler also used closed couplets in his iambic tetrameter Hudibrastic verse.

"True wit is nature to advantage dressed
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd"

is an example of the closed couplet in heroic verse from Alexander Pope's Essay on Criticism.


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • closed couplet — closed′ cou′plet n. pro a couplet concluding with an end stopped line …   From formal English to slang

  • closed couplet — a couplet that concludes with an end stopped line. Cf. open couplet. [1905 10] * * * …   Universalium

  • closed couplet — noun a rhymed couplet that forms a complete syntactic unit • Hypernyms: ↑couplet …   Useful english dictionary

  • closed couplet — noun Date: 1910 a rhymed couplet in which the sense is complete …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • couplet — /kup lit/, n. 1. a pair of successive lines of verse, esp. a pair that rhyme and are of the same length. 2. a pair; couple. 3. Music. any of the contrasting sections of a rondo occurring between statements of the refrain. [1570 80; < MF; see… …   Universalium

  • Couplet — For other uses, see Couplet (disambiguation). A couplet is a pair of lines of meter in poetry. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter. While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark …   Wikipedia

  • Heroic couplet — A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used for epic and narrative poetry; it refers to poems constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter lines. The rhyme is always masculine. Use of the heroic… …   Wikipedia

  • open couplet — noun : a couplet the sense of which requires completion by what follows * * * a couplet that concludes with a run on line. Cf. closed couplet. * * * open couplet, a couplet in which the second line does not complete a thought but depends on the… …   Useful english dictionary

  • open couplet — a couplet that concludes with a run on line. Cf. closed couplet. * * * …   Universalium

  • stopped couplet — noun : closed couplet …   Useful english dictionary

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