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Literature vocabulary · Poetry

Couplet

Meaning in literature, with examples

/ˈkʌplət/nounCommon term

In literature, couplet means: A pair of consecutive lines of poetry, usually of the same length and rhyming with each other, that form a unit of meaning.

In Turkish: beyit, ikilik

How it is used

Shakespearean sonnets end with a rhyming couplet that often sums up or twists the poem's argument. The heroic couplet, in rhymed iambic pentameter, was used by Dryden and Pope. In Turkish, the beyit is the basic unit of divan poetry.

Example sentences

  1. The final couplet changes the meaning of the whole sonnet.

  2. The poem is written entirely in rhyming couplets.

Common collocations

  • rhyming couplet
  • final couplet
  • heroic couplet
  • closing couplet
  • stanzaA group of lines in a poem, separated from other groups by a space, that works like a paragraph in prose.
  • sonnetA poem of fourteen lines with a fixed rhyme scheme, usually in iambic pentameter in English, often about love or a single strong feeling.
  • rhyme schemeThe pattern of rhymes at the ends of lines in a poem or stanza, shown with letters, for example ABAB, where lines with the same letter rhyme.
  • iambic pentameterA line of poetry made of five iambs, each an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, giving ten syllables: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM.

More terms: Poetry

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