| 释义 |
poem|ˈpəʊɪm|
Also 6–7 poeme.
[a. F. poème (in Oresme 14th c.), ad. L. poēma (in Plautus), a. Gr. πόηµα (4th c. b.c.), early variant of ποίηµα, thing made or created, work, fiction, poetical work, f. ποιεῖν (early variant ποεῖν) to make. (If ποίηµα had been the form introduced, the L. would have been pœēma.)
The word poem was app. not in use till about the middle of the 16th c.; the sense was previously, from 14th c., expressed by poesy, sense 2.]
1. a. ‘The work of a poet, a metrical composition’ (Johnson); ‘a work in verse’ (Littré); a composition of words expressing facts, thoughts, or feelings in poetical form; a piece of poetry.
In addition to the metrical or verse form, critics have generally held that in order to deserve the name of ‘poem’, the theme and its treatment must possess qualities which raise it above the level of ordinary prose. Cf. quots. 1575, 1689, 1841, and see poetry.
1548Elyot Dict., Poema..a poetes inuencion, a poeme [ed. 1538 Poema..a poetes warke]. 1568T. Howell (title) The Arbor of Amitie; wherin is comprised pleasant Poems and pretie Poesies. 1575Gascoigne Notes Eng. Verse §1 in Steele Glas, etc. (Arb.) 31 The first and most necessarie poynt..meete to be considered in making of a delectable poeme is this, to ground it upon some fine inuention. 1581Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 23 And may not I..say that the holy Dauids Psalmes are a diuine Poem? 1636B. Jonson Discov. Wks. 1641 II. 126 Even one alone verse sometimes makes a perfect Poeme. Ibid., These three voices differ, as the thing done, the doing, and the doer; the thing fain'd, the faining and the fainer; so the Poeme, the Poesy, and the Poet. 1689–90Temple Ess. Poetry Wks. 1731 I. 236 The Frame and Fabrick of a true Poem, must have something both sublime and just, amazing and agreeable. ― Ess. Learning Ibid. I. 298 The Language is but the Colouring; 'tis the Conception, the Invention, the Judgment, that give the Life and Spirit, as well as Beauty and Force, to a Poem. 1706Phillips, Poem, a Piece of Poetry, a Composition in Verse, a Copy of Verses. 1736Sheridan in Swift's Lett. (1768) IV. 181, I have written a little pretty birth-day poem against St. Andrew's day, which..I intend for Faulkner to publish. 1828Whately in Encycl. Metrop. I. 290/1 Any composition in verse, (and none that is not,) is always called, whether good or bad, a Poem, by all who have no favourite hypothesis to maintain. 1841–4Emerson Ess., Poet Wks. (Bohn) I. 157 It is not metres, but a metre-making argument, that makes a poem. 1871B. Taylor Faust (1875) I. Notes 319 Everything in this poem is perfect, thought and expression, Rhythm; but one thing it lacks: 'tis not a poem at all.
b. transf. (or in more general sense): Applied to a composition which, without the form, has some quality or qualities in common with poetry.
1581Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 28 Xenophon, who did imitate so excellently..the portraiture of a iust Empire vnder the name of Cyrus, (as Cicero sayth of him) made therein an absolute heroicall Poem. 1873Ruskin Fors Clav. III. xxxiv. 6 Do you know what a play is? or what a poem is? or what a novel is?.. You had better first, for clearness' sake, call all the three ‘poems’, for all the three are so, when they are good, whether written in verse or prose.
2. fig. Something (other than a composition of words) of a nature or quality akin or likened to that of poetry (with various implications, as artistic or orderly structure, noble expression, ideal beauty or gracefulness, etc.).
1642Milton Apol. Smect. Wks. 1851 III. 270 He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought him selfe to be a true Poem, that is a composition and patterne of the best and honourablest things. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. 421 There being as much continued and coherent Sence..in this Real Poem of the World, as there is in any Phantastick Poem made by men. 1843Kingsley Lett. (1878) I. 108 We shall have no need to write poetry—our life will be a real poem. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Race Wks. (Bohn) II. 24 The Celts..gave to the seas and mountains names which are poems, and imitate the pure voices of nature. 1899W. R. Inge Chr. Mysticism 47 The world is the poem of the Word to the glory of the Father.
3. attrib. and Comb., as poem-book, poem-maker, poem-play.
1806R. Cumberland Mem. (1807) II. 268 The public did not concern itself about the poem, or the poem-maker. c1843Carlyle Hist. Sk. Jas. I & Chas. I (1898) 138 A small brown Poem-Book, not without merit. 1878Browning Poets Croisic xlvii, ‘The Royal Poet’ straightway put in type His poem-prophecy. 1887W. B. Yeats Let. 25 June in Lett. to K. Tynan (1953) 31 Sparling knows and much admires your ‘Flight of the Wild Geese’, from which I conclude it will figure in his poem-book. 1949E. E. Cummings Let. 23 Aug. (1969) 193 Poems are nonsellable enough..without calling the poembook by some foreign word.
Hence (nonce-wds.) ˈpoemet, ˈpoemlet [see -et1, -let], a small or short poem; ˈpoeming, composing or reciting of poems.
1799W. Taylor Let. to Southey 4 Jan. in Robberds Mem. I. 244 A regular receptacle for those *poemets..which aspire only to a summer's existence. 1871H. B. Forman Living Poets 210 We have a great number of these ‘poemets’, bearing no traces whatever of the triviality of occasional verses.
1708Brit. Apollo No. 84. 2/2 Loud Tawkings and *Poemings.
1887–9T. A. Trollope What I remember II. 369 Many of her verses she set to music, especially one little *poemlet, which I remember to this day. |