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he plot, story, or connected series of events, forming the subject of an epic or dramatic poem. The moral is the first business of the poet; this being formed, he contrives such a design or fable as may be most suitable to the moral. Dryden.

t; free from blemish; free from incorrectness, vice, or offense; perfect; as, a faultless poem. Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be. Pope.

Polished to the highest degree of excellence; complete; perfect; as, a finished poem; a finished education. Finished work (Mach.), work that is made smooth or polished, though not necessarily completed.

A birthday poem.

A rural poem; a poetical composition on husbandry, containing rules for cultivating lands, etc.; as, the Georgics of Virgil.

y, translated and printed by Caxton in 1483, and partially paraphrased by Longfellow in a poem thus entitled. -- Golden marcasite tin. [Obs.] -- Golden mean, the way of wisdom and safety between extremes; sufficiency without excess; moderation. Angels guard him in the golden mean. Pope. -- Golden mole (Zoöl), one of s…

Dr. Johnson as "much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems, whence any mean production is called grubstreet." As an adjective, suitable to, or resembling the production of, Grub Street. I 'd sooner ballads write, and grubstreet lays. Gap.

The principal personage in a poem, story, and the like, or the person who has the principal share in the transactions related; as Achilles in the Iliad, Ulysses in the Odyssey, and Æneas in the Æneid. The shining quality of an epic hero. Dryden. Hero worship, extravagant admiration for great men, likened to the ancient…

Combining the heroic and the ludicrous; denoting high burlesque; as, a heroicomic poem.

The principal female person who figures in a remarkable action, or as the subject of a poem or story.

A poem consisting of six verses or lines.

Of or pertaining to history, or the record of past events; as, an historical poem; the historic page. -- His*tor"ic*al*ness, n. -- His*to*ric"i*ty, n. There warriors frowning in historic brass. Pope. Historical painting, that branch of painting which represents the events of history. -- Historical sense, that meanin…

Similar to, or in the style of, the poem "Hudibras," by Samuel Butler; in the style of doggerel verse. Macaulay.

A satirical poem (such poems having been anciently written in iambic verse); a satire; a lampoon.

A short poem; properly, a short pastoral poem; as, the idyls of Theocritus; also, any poem, especially a narrative or descriptive poem, written in an eleveted and highly finished style; also, by extension, any artless and easily flowing description, either in poetry or prose, of simple, rustic life, of pastoral scenes,…

A celebrated Greek epic poem, in twenty-four books, on the destruction of Ilium, the ancient Troy. The Iliad is ascribed to Homer.

suggesting images of sensible objects; figures in discourse. I wish there may be in this poem any instance of good imagery. Dryden.

Intricate; entangled; complicated; complex. The fable of every poem is . . . simple or implex. it is called simple when there is no change of fortune in it; implex, when the fortune of the chief actor changes from bad to good, or from good to bad. Addison.

One who composes and sings or recites rhymes and short poems extemporaneously. [Written also improvisatore.]

To compose; to write, as a poem. Wounded I sing, tormented I indite. Herbert.