poesy

American  

[poh-uh-see, -zee] / ˈpoʊ ə si, -zi /

noun

• poesies
  plural

1. the work or the art of poetic composition.

2. Archaic.

   1. poetry in general.

   2. verse or poetry in metrical form.

3. Obsolete.

   1. a poem or verse used as a motto.

   2. a poem.

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poesy British  

/ ˈpəʊɪzɪ /

noun

1. an archaic word for poetry

2. poetic the art of writing poetry

3. archaic a poem or verse, esp one used as a motto

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• poesies
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of poesy

1300–50; Middle English poesie < Middle French < Latin poēsis < Greek poíēsis poetic art, poetry, literally, a making, equivalent to poiē-, variant stem of poieîn to make + -sis -sis

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Explanation

Poesy is a category of literature that includes rhythmic or rhyming verse. You might feel a little shy about your own attempts at poesy, especially if every single one of your verses starts with the line "Roses are red, violets are blue..." If you need an old-fashioned way to talk about poetry or the art of writing poems, use poesy. You can tell your English teacher you prefer poesy to prose, especially if you're partial to short, rhyming poems. Back in the 14th century, this word was a common way to refer to the craft of writing verse. It comes from the Greek root poesis, "poetry" or "a making."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

poesy poesies

The White Album’s tonal and visual proximities begin with The Pure and the Damned, the music video from Oneohtrix Point Never featuring Iggy Pop’s eerie poesy, from the 2017 film Good Time.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 11, 2018

Costner delivers Dutton’s threats, pleas, and cowboy poesy in a rasp.

From The New Yorker ● Jun. 20, 2018

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s adaptation of T. S. Eliot’s feline poesy ends its Broadway revival.

From New York Times ● Dec. 14, 2017

To learn grammar was to appreciate the book’s poesy, which in turn was to break open a once-inaccessible text.

From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2017

If the Catfish of to-day is ever to go down to posterity on the wings of poesy, however, I would wish that it might be with the more euphonious title of "Yahara,"—the original Winnebago name.

From Historic Waterways?Six Hundred Miles of Canoeing Down the Rock, Fox, and Wisconsin Rivers by Reuben Gold Thwaites

And so I keep mine uncompanioned ways; And so my touch, to golden poesies Turning love's bread, is bought at hunger's price.

From Sister Songs; an offering to two sisters by Francis Thompson

"Siren charms" and "bright-eyed enchantress," "soft zephyrs" and "gentle poesies," might be the stock expressions always ready to lend themselves to rhymes, with a hundred others of the like nature.

From Her Season in Bath A Story of Bygone Days by Emma Marshall

Monsieur Vanderbourg! for that gentleman is the ostensible editor of Clotilde’s poesies of the fifteenth century, some ingenious persons are unlucky in this world!

From Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 3 by Isaac Disraeli

By this time Scott and Coleridge were dead; Byron, Shelley, and Keats had been dead for years, and Mrs. Radcliffe's poesies fell upon the unheeding ears of a new generation.

From A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century by Henry A. (Henry Augustin) Beers

There are two pieces addressed to Ægidius Luyck in D. Selyn's MSS. of poesies, upon his marriage with Judith Isendoorn.

From Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete by Washington Irving

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