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

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

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

Perhaps religion to her was more a matter of sensations and feelings than of the mind; perhaps more a question of art, poesy and comforting illusion than of thought.

From My Memoirs by Marguerite Steinheil

Still, the chief merit of the book, as a book, was the light and decided touch with which its author took up the follies and poesies of the day, and brought them all before us.

From Life Without and Life Within or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and poems. by Margaret Fuller

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

These strains the way for thine own strains prepare; We feel the music moist upon this breeze, And hope the congregating poesies.

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

They praised each other's beauties ingenuously, spending treasures of language on these secret idylls, inventing soft exaggerations and more diminutives than the ancient muse of Tibullus, or the poesies of Italy.

From The Hated Son by Honoré de Balzac

In 1624 a small collection of them was printed, with the quaint title, “Love’s Garland; or poesies for rings, handkerchiefs, and gloves, and such pretty tokens that lovers send their loves.”

From Rambles of an Archaeologist Among Old Books and in Old Places Being Papers on Art, in Relation to Archaeology, Painting, Art-Decoration, and Art-Manufacture by F. W. (Frederick William) Fairholt