Poetic form

What is a Epigram?

Definition

An epigram is a very short poem — usually two to four lines — that ends with a witty sting.

'Epigram' is Greek for inscription, and the form has never lost that carved-in-stone economy: two to four lines, a setup, and a sting that lands on the final word like a trap snapping shut. The Roman poet Martial perfected the insult version two thousand years ago; Alexander Pope ran the 18th century on them; Dorothy Parker filed the form to a stiletto point at the Algonquin.

Coleridge defined it in an epigram, which is the only honorable way: 'What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole; / Its body brevity, and wit its soul.' The engineering is always reverse: you find the twist first and build the shortest possible road to it. Anything in the poem that isn't load-bearing for the joke has to go — including, sometimes, mercy.

Structure of a epigram

Two to four lines (rarely more), usually rhymed
Setup, then sting: the wit lands on the final line — often the final word
Compression is the law: nothing present but the joke's machinery
Classic targets: vanity, critics, lovers, mortality — anything that deserves a pin

How to write a epigram

Find the twist first — an epigram is reverse-engineered from its last word.
Write the setup as a plausible, even solemn, first line.
Rhyme the sting: the click of the rhyme is the sound of the trap closing.
Cut until removing one more word would kill it. Then consider cutting that word.