Poetic form

What is an 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 an 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 an 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.

Private check

Writing an epigram?

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