Epigram, << EHP uh gram, >> is a short, witty poem or pointed saying. Its important features are compression, polish, balance, and clarity. Often in verse form, it is sometimes satirical. The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote:
Loading the player...“What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole, Its body brevity, and wit its soul.”
Epigram by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
For the ancient Greeks, the epigram was a simple and brief inscription for a statue, a building, or a coin, or the epitaph for a tomb. But it changed from its original form and content. The Roman poet Martial developed the sharp and stinging epigram that we know today. Two English poets, Ben Jonson in the 1600’s and Alexander Pope in the 1700’s, perfected the form.
But epigrams are not always in verse. Popular sayings are really epigrams, as in “It never rains but it pours.”
