poeticallyadv.

c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) Prol. 299 (MED) Ovide also poetycally hath closyd Falshede with trouthe.

c1440 S. Scrope tr. C. de Pisan Epist. of Othea (St. John's Cambr.) (1970) 7 Be Othea we schal vnderstaunde the vertu of prudence... And..we haue youen a name and taken a maner of speche in som wise poetikly.

1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum Poeticallye, poetice.

1571 A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Psalmes of Dauid with Comm. (xviii. 5) To be enlarged poetically, and with glisteringe ornaments of words.

1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica 132 Some have written Poetically as Ovid. View more context for this quotation

1674 Govt. Tongue xii. 204 One would think we were fallen into an Age of Metamorphosis, and that the Brutes did (not only Poetically and in fiction) but really speak.

1753 W. Hogarth Anal. Beauty xi. 90 How poetically doth the action..carry on the allusion to speed.

1792 M. Wollstonecraft Vindic. Rights Woman vi. 261 The generality of people cannot see or feel poetically, they want fancy.

1850 Ld. Tennyson Princess (ed. 3) Concl. 171 What, if you drest it [sc. the story] up poetically!

1855 Harper's Mag. June 99/2 Leave that to me and mother Nature, or, as our friend here would poetically say, the goddess Undine.

1911 E. Ferber Dawn O'Hara xvii. 254 It lacks that peculiar and convincing quality poetically known as the punch.

1996 Blueprint July 5/1 A vibrant green nylon dome suspended from arched bamboo poles that sway poetically in the breeze.

1697 J. Dryden Ded. Æneis in tr. Virgil Wks. sig. a2^v It is not necessary the Manners of the Heroe should be virtuous. They are Poetically good if they are of a Piece.

1760 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy II. viii. 55 I have not allowed Obadiah time enough, poetically speaking, and considering the emergency too, both to go and come.

1845 M. R. Mitford in A. G. L'Estrange Life M. R. Mitford (1870) III. xi. 197 Books typographically worth about eightpence—poetically good for nothing.

1888 Murray's Mag. July 43 Poetically speaking a madrigal may be defined as the shortest form of lyrical poetry.

1930 Times Lit. Suppl. 25 Dec. 1103/1 There is encouraging evidence elsewhere that young Oxford is beginning to recognize that mere cleverness is poetically sterile.

1992 Inuktitut No. 75. 40/2 With Orpingalik, who of all the Netsilingmiut was the most poetically gifted man, I often discussed the significance of song.