# poem

Pronunciation: say "POH-uhm" US /ˈpoʊ.əm/, AUS /ˈpɔʊ(ə)m/; UK say "POH-im" /ˈpəʊ.ɪm/

## Noun

1. A literary piece written in verse, arranged in lines rather than continuous prose.
   - Simple: A piece of writing arranged in verse, often using rhythm or rhyme.
   - _He memorized a poem for the school recital._
   - _Her latest collection gathers poems written over two decades._
2. A piece of writing that stands within the tradition of poetry; an individual instance of poetry.
   - Simple: A piece of writing that belongs to poetry and uses its style.
   - _The anthology opens with a poem by an unknown medieval author._
   - _Modern poems often abandon rhyme while keeping a poetic sensibility._
3. A piece of writing that stands out from ordinary prose through the power or depth of its expression or inspiration.
   - Simple: A piece of writing with stronger feeling or beauty than ordinary writing.
   - _His farewell speech rose, at its close, into something like a poem._
   - _The novel's final pages read as pure poems of grief and memory._

## Origin

The word came through Middle French poème from Latin poēma, from Ancient Greek ποίημα (poíēma), which goes back to ποιέω (poiéō, "I make"). It replaced the native Old English word lēoþ.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/poem (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).