A couplet is a pair of rhymed lines. Both lines usually have the same meter, or number of syllables. A couplet represents a whole notion and might be humorous or serious. Some poems are composed of many couplets.
A rhyming couplet is a type of poetry that uses identical rhymes in each line of the poem. These poems tend to be short, often just one sentence long. They are easy to write and fun to read. There are several famous poems that are only written in rhyming couplets: "Eloi" by John Milton and "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by Keats are two examples. Many children's poems are also written in rhyming couplets. "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear and "Roses are Red" by Karen Hesse are two examples of poems for young readers.
These poems are easy to write because you only need to think of one word per line. The ending word or phrase can be used as the beginning word of the next line too. For example, if the last word of the first line is "giraffe", then the second line could start with "long neck" and the third line could start with "looked at him sternly". This is how poems written in rhyming couplets work.
In poetry, a couplet is a pair of consecutive lines in metre. A couplet is often made composed of two lines that rhyme and have the same metre. Each of the two lines of a formal (or closed) couplet is end-stopped, signifying a grammatical halt at the conclusion of a line of poetry. End-stopping can be achieved by using punctuation marks or capital letters at the beginning and end of a line.
End-stopped lines are common in English poetry, especially ballads and sonnets. In classical poetry, the iambic pentameter requires ten syllables per line and is considered the ideal form for epic poems, such as The Iliad by Homer. This constraint allows for only five end-stopped lines in an 80-line poem. Modern poets may vary the number of end-stopped lines within a given limit to achieve greater rhythmic variety within the work as a whole.
The term "couplet" comes from the French word for two, which in turn comes from the Latin words for young man. Thus a couplet is a poem written in double meters, usually referring to two quatrains rhyming abab. These four-line stanzas are the basic unit of Classical Arabic poetry. The triple meter used by many Persian poets consists of three pairs of alternating lines, each pair consisting of a long and a short line. Turkish poetry also uses triplets; each triad is called a tercet.
A couplet poem is made up of groups of two lines that flow together and frequently rhyme. The number six is important in poetry; it is called the "canon" of poems. There are only six classes or "cannons" of poems: Iambic Pentameter (the classical form) and Iambic Heptameter (a popular form); both have seven metered lines. The rest are classified as free verse.
In general, a couplet is a pair of lines, the first and last words of which coincide (such as "rose" and "rosebud"). A quatrain is a group of four such lines. In English literature, a sonnet is a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter. This form is based on the structure of the sonnet sequence, which consists of an opening line, followed by thirteen lines with eleven syllables in each, and a closing line similar to the first. Many modern poets follow this pattern loosely, using it as a guide rather than a rule.
In poetry readings, couplets are usually done by one person reading while another person sings or plays music. This allows both speakers an opportunity to be heard.
A couplet might be formal (closed) or run-on (unclosed). An example of a formal couplet is: Spring comes with flowers, flowers bloom in June. Summer's heat melts them all away.
An uncoupled couplet is one where the second line does not directly answer the question posed by the first line. For example: I wish you a Merry Christmas I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to say goodbye.
A three-line rhyming poem is also called a tercet. This term can be used for any length rhyming poem but here we will consider only those that are symmetrical as a tercet should be. Thus, a couplet is a symmetrical tercet and a trio is a symmetrical tercet too.
A quatrain is a four-line poem that usually ends with a full stop after the third line. The fourth line typically answers the question raised by the third line and sometimes goes further than that; it can be a general statement, a prophecy, or anything else suitable.
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