Editing Epigram (section)

==English==
In early [[English literature]] the short [[couplet]] poem was dominated by the poetic epigram and [[proverb]], especially in the translations of the [[Bible]] and the Greek and [[Latin poetry|Roman poets]].

Two successive lines of verse that rhyme with each other are known as a couplet. Since 1600, the couplet has been featured as a part of the longer [[sonnet]] form, most notably in [[William Shakespeare]]'s sonnets. [[Sonnet 76]] is an example. The two-line poetic form as a [[closed couplet]] was also used by [[William Blake]] in his poem "[[Auguries of Innocence]]", and also by [[Lord Byron|Byron]] in his poem ''[[Don Juan (poem)|Don Juan]]'', by [[John Gay]] in his fables, and by [[Alexander Pope]] in his ''[[An Essay on Man]]''.

The first work of English literature penned in [[North America]] was [[Robert Hayman]]'s ''Quodlibets, Lately Come Over from New Britaniola, Old Newfoundland'', which is a collection of over 300 epigrams, many of which do not conform to the two-line rule or trend.  While the collection was written between 1618 and 1628 in what is now Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, it was published shortly after his return to Britain.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Robert|last1=Hayman |last2=Reynolds|first2=David|title=Quodlibets, Lately Come Over from New Britaniola, Old Newfoundland|date=February 2013 |publisher=Problematic Press|location=Newfoundland|isbn=9780986902727|pages=5–6|url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17627994-quodlibets-lately-come-over-from-new-britaniola-old-newfoundland|access-date=14 September 2015|ref=Quodlibets, Lately Come Over from New Britaniola, Old Newfoundland}}</ref> 
 
In [[Victorian literature|Victorian times]], the epigram couplet was often used by the prolific American poet [[Emily Dickinson]]. Her poem No. 1534 is a typical example of her eleven poetic epigrams. The novelist [[George Eliot]] also included couplets throughout her writings. Her best example is in her sequenced sonnet poem entitled ''Brother and Sister''<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2696.html |title=RPO -- George Eliot: Brother and Sister |access-date=2006-11-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070117053014/http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2696.html |archive-date=2007-01-17 |url-status=dead }}</ref> in which each of the eleven sequenced sonnets ends with a couplet. In her sonnets, the preceding lead-in-line, to the couplet ending of each, could be thought of as a title for the couplet, as is shown in Sonnet VIII of the sequence.

During the early 20th century, the rhymed epigram couplet form developed into a [[fixed verse]] image form, with an integral title as the third line. [[Adelaide Crapsey]] codified the couplet form into a two-line rhymed verse of ten syllables per line with her image couplet poem ''On Seeing Weather-Beaten Trees'',<ref>{{cite book|url=http://name.umdl.umich.edu/BAE8954.0001.001|title=Verse / Adelaide Crapsey [electronic text]|first=Adelaide|last=Crapsey|date=1 January 1997}}</ref> first published in 1915.

By the 1930s, the five-line [[cinquain]] verse form became widely known in the poetry of the [[Scottish people|Scottish]] poet [[William Soutar]]. These were originally labelled epigrams but later identified as image cinquains in the style of [[Adelaide Crapsey]].

[[J. V. Cunningham]] was also a noted writer of epigrams (a medium suited to a "short-breathed" person).<ref>The Poems of J.V.Cunningham (ed Tomothy Steele) Faber&Faber London {{ISBN|978-0-571-24193-4}}</ref>