noun
couplet
KUP-lit/ˈkʌplət/
Two successive lines of poetry, usually linked by rhyme or meter.
The notebook contains a short rhyming couplet about rain against a window.
Etymology
The 'connection' root had already developed into 'pair'; the diminutive makes a couplet a little pair. In poetry, that pair consists of two successive lines forming a unit.
In context
is crumpled by life the great stock exchanger that one I described the form as taking the refrain lines alternatively down through the poem and then coming together as a couplet
More examples
- She writes each couplet on a separate page.
- The final couplet rhymes “day” with “away.”
- These couplets share a steady rhythm but do not rhyme.
Forms
couplet · couplets
Similar words
- stanza
- A grouped set of poetic lines, not necessarily two.