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sports, wrestling, boxing, racing on foot and in chariots, and also contests in music and poetry. The prize was a garland of pine leaves.

; a connoisseur; an expert; a critic. A man who is no judge of law may be a good judge of poetry, or eloquence, or of the merits of a painting. Dryden.

the moral, or to address the poem to a particular person; -- orig. employed in old French poetry. Shak.

Bearing marks of labor and effort; elaborately wrought; not easy or natural; as, labored poetry; a labored style.

A landscape. [Obs. except in poetry.] Straight my eye hath caught new pleasures, Whilst the landskip round it measures. Milton.

ines. Pope. Poet laureate. (b) One who received an honorable degree in grammar, including poetry and rhetoric, at the English universities; -- so called as being presented with a wreath of laurel. [Obs.] (b) Formerly, an officer of the king's household, whose business was to compose an ode annually for the king's birth…

e, conforming to the conditions of success; a principle, maxim; or usage; as, the laws of poetry, of architecture, of courtesy, or of whist.

Dear; beloved. [Obs., except in poetry.] "My liefe mother." Chaucer. "My liefest liege." Shak. As thou art lief and dear. Tennyson.

To hearken; to attend; to listen. [Obs. except in poetry.] Stand close, and list to him. Shak.

The class of writings distinguished for beauty of style or expression, as poetry, essays, or history, in distinction from scientific treatises and works which contain positive knowledge; belles-lettres.

; to be pleased with; to like; as, to love books; to love adventures. Wit, eloquence, and poetry. Arts which I loved. Cowley.

ged instrument of music; a kind of harp much used by the ancients, as an accompaniment to poetry.

A verse of the kind usually employed in lyric poetry; -- used chiefly in the plural. 4. pl.

Fitted to be sung to the lyre; hence, also, appropriate for song; -- said especially of poetry which expresses the individual emotions of the poet. "Sweet lyric song." Milton.

A musician who plays on the harp or lyre; a composer of lyrical poetry. Shelley.

Of or pertaining to the burlesque composition called macaronic; as, macaronic poetry.

To compose verses; to write poetry; to versify. [Archaic] Chaucer. Tennyson. To solace him some time, as I do when I make. P. Plowman. To make as if, or To make as though, to pretend that; to make show that; to make believe (see under Make, v. t.). Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled…

It seems to me; I think. See Me. [R., except in poetry.] In all ages poets have been had in special reputation, and, methinks, not without great cause. Spenser.

The goddess of wisdom, of war, of the arts and sciences, of poetry, and of spinning and weaving; -- identified with the Grecian Pallas Athene.

In the Middle Ages, one of an order of men who subsisted by the arts of poetry and music, and sang verses to the accompaniment of a harp or other instrument; in modern times, a poet; a bard; a singer and harper; a musician. Chaucer.