Couplet, << KUHP liht, >> is a rhyme of two lines. The heroic couplet is an English metrical form in iambic pentameter, used in sequence.
A closed couplet emphasizes the rhyme, and completes a thought within two lines. For example:
Loading the player...Pope's use of couplets
A perfect Judge will read each work of Wit With the same spirit that its author writ: Survey the Whole, nor seek slight faults to find Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind …
In an open couplet, clauses and sentences end anywhere, and the rhyme is not emphasized. For example:
Loading the player...Keats's Endymion
A thing of beauty is a joy forever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
John Dryden and Alexander Pope used the closed couplet brilliantly. Other poets used open couplets with great skill. They include Geoffrey Chaucer, George Chapman, and John Keats. The word couplet also refers to any two lines of poetry that stand alone to form a stanza.
