Search the Dictionary

Inspiring envy. [Obs. or Poetic] He to him leapt, and that same envious gage Of victor's glory from him snatched away. Spenser.

An explanatory or commendatory postscript to a poem, essay, or book; -- also in the French from, l'envoi. The envoy of a ballad is the "sending" of it forth. Skeat.

Narrated in a grand style; pertaining to or designating a kind of narrative poem, usually called an heroic poem, in which real or fictitious events, usually the achievements of some hero, are narrated in an elevated style. The epic poem treats of one great, complex action, in a grand style and with fullness of detail.…

Epic. -- Ep"ic*al*ly, adv. Poems which have an epical character. Brande & C. His [Wordsworth's] longer poems (miscalled epical). Lowell.

A short poem treating concisely and pointedly of a single thought or event. The modern epigram is so contrived as to surprise the reader with a witticism or ingenious turn of thought, and is often satirical in character. Dost thou think I care for a satire or an epigram Shak.

Writing epigrams; dealing in epigrams; as, an epigrammatical poet.

A speech or short poem addressed to the spectators and recited by one of the actors, after the conclusion of the play. A good play no epilogue, yet . . . good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. Shak.

they beheld transfigured and in a glorious epiphany upon the mount. Jer. Taylor. An epic poet, if ever such a difficult birth should make its epiphany in Paris. De Quincey.

That part which embraces the main action of a play, poem, and the like, and leads on to the catastrophe; -- opposed to protasis.

A nuptial song, or poem in honor of the bride and bridegroom. The kind of poem which was called epithalamium . . . sung when the bride was led into her chamber. B. Jonson.

A species of lyric poem, invented by Archilochus, in which a longer verse is followed by a shorter one; as, the Epodes of Horace. It does not include the elegiac distich.

Pertaining to the Muse Erato who presided over amatory poetry. Stormonth.

The Muse who presided over lyric and amatory poetry.

Before; sooner than. [Archaic or Poetic] Myself was stirring ere the break of day. Shak. Ere sails were spread new oceans to explore. Dryden. Sir, come down ere my child die. John iv. 49.

An early, and now a poetic, name of Ireland.

An amorous composition or poem.

Eternal. [Poetic] Shak. Built up to eterne significance. Mrs. Browning.

bes believed the eternal truths which he opposed. Dryden. What are the eternal objects of poetry among all nations, and at all times M. Arnold.

Just or harmonious proportion or movement, as in the composition of a poem, an edifice, a painting, or a statue.

Evening. [Poetic] Winter oft, at eve resumes the breeze. Thomson.