poetic license

American  

noun

1. license or liberty taken by a poet, prose writer, or other artist in deviating from rule, conventional form, logic, or fact, in order to produce a desired effect.

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poetic license Idioms  

1. Also, artistic license. The liberty taken by a writer or artist in deviating from conventional form or fact to achieve an effect. For example, I've never seen grass or a tree of that color; but that's artistic license. [Late 1700s]

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Etymology

Origin of poetic license

First recorded in 1780–90

Example Sentences

But that’s just poetic license and, of course, perfectly acceptable.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 27, 2025

Rachel Syme’s foreword to the musical book says that this version of “Ironic” turns it into “an inside joke about poetic license and grammatical errors.”

From Salon • Nov. 29, 2024

“Bedewed it with his tears and bid to it an everlasting adieu” is the stuff of poetic license and bad poetry.

From Slate • Nov. 28, 2024

All of which frees this show to take poetic license — to tell its version of the truth, but to tell it weirdly, delightfully slant.

From New York Times • Jan. 7, 2021

This second meaning we owe to the poetic license of Mr. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose famous poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner contained just such a creature.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood