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n. 1. A verbal composition designed to convey experiences, ideas, or emotions in a vivid and imaginative way, characterized by the use of language chosen for its sound and suggestive power and by the use of literary techniques such as meter, metaphor, and rhyme. 2. A composition in verse rather than in prose: wrote both prose and poems. 3. A literary composition written with an intensity or beauty of language more characteristic of poetry than of prose. [French poème, from Old French, from Latin poēma, from Greek poiēma, from poiein, to create; see kwei-2 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] |
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