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Definition: epigram from Collins English Dictionary

n

1 a witty, often paradoxical remark, concisely expressed

2 a short, pungent, and often satirical poem, esp one having a witty and ingenious ending

[C15: from Latin epigramma, from Greek: inscription, from epigraphein to write upon, from graphein to write]

› ˌepigramˈmatic or ˌepigramˈmatical adj

› ˌepigramˈmatically adv


epigram

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Short, witty, and pithy saying or short poem. The poem form was common among writers of ancient Rome, including Catullus and Martial . The epigram has been used by English poets Ben Jonson , John Donne , and Alexander Pope , Irish writers Jonathan Swift and W B Yeats , and US writer Ogden Nash . An epigram was originally a religious inscription, such as that on a tomb. Irish writer Oscar Wilde and US writer Dorothy Parker produced epigrams in conversation as well as in writing. Epigrams are often satirical, as in Wilde's observation: ‘Speech was given us to conceal our thoughts.’ While Greek epigrams were sometimes satirical, in Roman literature satire became the rule. The epigram is often based on antithesis, as in Pope's line ‘For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.’ Among the earliest examples of epigrams are those of the Greek Simonides of Ceos, who wrote epitaphs in elegiac couplets for the Greeks who died in the Persian wars, a typical example being his couplet on the…
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Full text Article EPIGRAM

From The Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms
(Gr. epigramma , “inscription”). An ancient form, first carved on gravestones, statuary, and buildings. Epigrams encompass an almost infinite variety of tone and subject, but they are defined by concision (relatively speaking: while many epigrams are two to four lines long, others are considerably…
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Full text Article Epigrams

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Literature
third century BCE Work Author: Callimachus In his own epoch, Callimachus was most famous, though not universally admired, for his epigrams. Of these brief, pithy, often humorous, and always polished poems, 64 examples survive. These treat a broad array of subjects in an equally broad spectrum of…
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Full text Article Epigram

From The Classical Tradition
The epigram ( epigramma , or inscription) is a brief verse inscription or, more commonly, a poem written in an inscription's pithy style. Three major classical strands influenced the post-classical epigram. The Greek Anthology, composed of the Planudean Anthology, collected in 1301 and first…
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Full text Article epigram

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Short, witty, and pithy saying or short poem. The poem form was common among writers of ancient Rome, including Catullus and Martial . The epigram has been used by English poets Ben Jonson , John Donne , and Alexander Pope , Irish writers Jonathan Swift and W B Yeats , and US writer Ogden Nash . An…
| 328 words
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Full text Article Epigrams

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Literature
ca. 86–ca. 98 CE Work Author: Martial Martial's 14 books of Epigrams were instant successes from the moment the first book appeared. A part of their popularity, of course, stemmed from the fact that the epigram was already by far the most popular literary genre among Romans. The poet Catullus had…
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Full text Article EPIGRAM

From The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
(Gr. epigramma , "inscription").An ancient form, first carved on gravestones, statuary, and buildings. Epigrams encompass an almost infinite variety of tone and subject, but they are defined by concision (relatively speaking: while many epigrams are two to four lines long, others are considerably…
| 1,169 words
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Full text Article EPIGRAM

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity
By epigram is meant either an inscription proper or a brief composition rising to the dignity of an autonomous poetic genre, and present in Greek and Latin literature with an extraordinary variety of motifs and formal expressions. The epigram, renewed in content no less than in modes of expression, …
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Full text Article epigram, Latin

From The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization
The use of metrical inscriptions in Latin is attested from the second half of the 3rd cent. bc . The two most ancient elogia in the tomb of the Scipios ( CIL 1 2 . 9, probably from around 230 bc , and CIL 1 2 . 7 cut around 200 bc ) are in Saturnians, and limit themselves to a sober indication of…
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Full text Article epigram, Greek

From The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization
An epigram was originally nothing more than an inscription on an object or monument to say whose it is or who made it, who dedicated it to which god, or who is buried beneath it. The earliest known are in hexameters ( CEG 1. 432 and 454, the Dipylon oenochoe and Pithecusae scyphus, both c .720 bc ), …
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Full text Article Greek and Latin epigrams

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Literature
Originally meaning a brief inscription on buildings, tombstones, or votive offerings, the verse epigram became a favorite mode of expression for numerous ancient authors. Some of the early authors named as writers of epigrams include Aesop, Anacreon, Simonides of Ceos, and the playwrights Aeschylus…
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