poetry, language sung, chanted, spoken, or written according to some pattern of recurrence that emphasizes the relationships between Words on the basis of sound as well as sense: this pattern is almost always a rhythm or meter-poetry, which may be supplemented by rhyme or alliteration or both. The demands of verbal patterning usually make poetry a more condensed medium than prose or everyday speech, often involving variations in , the use of special Words and phrases, peculiar to poets, and a more frequent and more elaborate use of .
