heroic couplet

American  

noun

Prosody.

1. a stanza consisting of two rhyming lines in iambic pentameter, especially one forming a rhetorical unit and written in an elevated style, as, Know then thyself, presume not God to scan / The proper study of Mankind is Man.

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heroic couplet British  

noun

1. prosody a verse form consisting of two rhyming lines in iambic pentameter

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Etymology

Origin of heroic couplet

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

heroic couplet

At the approach of the 18th century, John Dryden offered Virgil as a master of the heroic couplet: "Arms, and the man I sing, who, forced by Fate,/ And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate."

From Time Magazine Archive

This is in Hunt’s reformed heroic couplet: the rest are in a chirruping and gossiping anapaestic sing-song which is perhaps the writer’s most congenial vein.

From Life of John Keats His Life and Poetry, his Friends, Critics and After-fame by Sidney Colvin

These last poems, written in the heroic couplet, contain some of the finest passages in Drayton’s writings.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 7 "Drama" to "Dublin" by Various

The use of the heroic couplet was its distinguishing mark; of course, an imitation of French practice.

From Tragedy by Ashley H. Thorndike

The normal type, as it may almost be called, of English versification is the metre of ten-syllabled rhymed lines designated as heroic couplet.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 6 "Coucy-le-Château" to "Crocodile" by Various