Two Definitions

1. Writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm. (Merriam-Webster)

2. Composition in verse or some comparable patterned arrangement of language in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm[. . .] . Traditionally associated with explicit formal departure from the patterns of ordinary speech or prose, e.g., in the use of elevated diction, fi gurative language, and syntactical reordering. (The Oxford English Dictionary)

Four Common Elements

1) the ¡°patterned arrangement of language¡± to

2) generate ¡°rhythm¡± and thereby both

3) express and evoke specific ¡°emotion[s]¡± or ¡°feelings¡± in

4) a ¡°concentrated¡± way, or with ¡°intensity.¡±