Epigram

The brief witty poem or saying that lands a whole argument in two or four lines.

Specifications & Metrics

type

Short witty form

origin

Classical Greece

originator

Anyte, Callimachus, then Martial in Rome

meter

Classical metres; English couplets

lines count

2

Core Principles & Analysis

• Martial's Latin epigrams fixed the sting-in-the-tail couplet model.
• In Greek stone inscriptions, epigram began as literal writing on objects.
• Prior and Coleridge kept the English epigram a salon weapon of wit.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Epigram