View source for Epigram

{{Short description|Brief memorable statement}}
{{hatnote group|
{{Other uses}}
{{Distinguish|Epigraph (disambiguation){{!}}Epigraph}}
}}
{{use dmy dates|date=September 2025}}
[[File:Quodlibets Epigrams.JPG|thumb|[[Robert Hayman]]'s 1628 book ''Quodlibets'' devotes much of its text to epigrams.]]

An '''epigram''' is a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising or [[satirical]] statement. The word derives from the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] {{lang|grc|{{math|ἐπίγραμμα}}}} ({{Transliteration|grc|epígramma}}, "inscription", from {{lang|grc|{{math|ἐπιγράφειν}}}} [{{Transliteration|grc|epigráphein}}], "to write on, to inscribe").<ref>
{{cite dictionary
 |title=epigram
 |dictionary=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]]
 |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=epigram
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508231918/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=epigram
 |archive-date=2016-05-08
}}
</ref> This [[literary device]] has been practiced for over two millennia.

The presence of [[wit]] or [[sarcasm]] tends to distinguish non-poetic epigrams from [[aphorisms]] and [[adage]]s, which typically do not show those qualities.

==Ancient Greek==
{{unreferenced section |date=June 2022}}

The [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] tradition of epigrams began as poems inscribed on [[votive offering]]s at [[sanctuary|sanctuaries]] – including statues of athletes – and on funerary monuments, for example [[Battle of Thermopylae#Epitaph of Simonides|"Go tell it to the Spartans, passersby..."]]. These original epigrams did the same job as a short prose text might have done, but in [[Verse (poetry)|verse]]. Epigram became a [[literary genre]] in the [[Hellenistic period]],<ref>
{{cite encyclopedia
 |first1=Ruth  |last1=Scodel
 |first2=Peter |last2=Bing
 |date=26 September 2022
 |title=Greek poetry: Epigrams
 |encyclopedia=[[Oxford Bibliographies]]
 |edition=online |lang=en
 |place=Oxford, UK  |publisher=Oxford University Press
 |doi=10.1093/obo/9780195389661-0049
 |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195389661/obo-9780195389661-0049.xml
 |url-status=live |via=oxfordbibliographies.com |access-date=2024-11-10
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240512184002/https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195389661/obo-9780195389661-0049.xml
 |archive-date=2024-05-12
|url-access=subscription
 }}
</ref> probably developing out of scholarly collections of inscriptional epigrams.

Though modern epigrams are usually thought of as very short, [[Ancient Greek literature|Greek literary]] epigram was not always as short as later examples, and the divide between "epigram" and "[[elegy]]" is sometimes indistinct (they share a characteristic [[Metre (poetry)|metre]], [[elegiac couplets]]). In the [[Classical antiquity|classical period]], the clear distinction between them was that epigrams were inscribed and meant to be read, while elegies were recited and meant to be heard. Some elegies could be quite short, but only public epigrams were longer than ten lines. All the same, the origin of epigram in inscription exerted a residual pressure to keep things [[Concision|concise]], even when they were recited in Hellenistic times. Many of the characteristic types of literary epigram look back to inscriptional contexts, particularly funerary epigram, which in the Hellenistic era becomes a literary exercise. Many "sympotic" epigrams combine sympotic and funerary elements{{spaced ndash}}they tell their readers (or listeners) to drink and live for today because life is short. Generally, any theme found in classical elegies could be and were adapted for later literary epigrams.

Hellenistic epigrams are also thought of as having a "point"{{spaced ndash}}that is, the poem ends in a punchline or satirical twist. By no means do all Greek epigrams behave this way; many are simply descriptive, but [[Meleager of Gadara]] and [[Philippus of Thessalonica]], the first comprehensive anthologists, preferred the short and witty epigram. Since their collections helped form knowledge of the genre in Rome and then later throughout Europe, Epigram came to be associated with 'point', especially because the European epigram tradition takes the Latin poet [[Martial]] as its principal model; he copied and adapted Greek models (particularly the contemporary poets [[Lucillius]] and [[Nicarchus]]) selectively and in the process redefined the genre, aligning it with the indigenous Roman tradition of "satura", hexameter [[satire]], as practised by (among others) his contemporary [[Juvenal]]. Greek epigram was actually much more diverse, as the [[Milan Papyrus]] now indicates.

A major source for Greek literary epigram is the ''[[Greek Anthology]]'', a compilation from the 10th century AD based on older collections, including those of Meleager and Philippus. It contains epigrams ranging from the Hellenistic period through the [[Roman Empire|Imperial period]] and [[Late Antiquity]] into the compiler's own [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] era – a thousand years of short elegiac texts on every topic under the sun. The ''Anthology'' includes one book of Christian epigrams as well as one book of [[erotic]] and amorous [[homosexual]] epigrams called the {{lang|grc|{{math|Μοῦσα Παιδικἠ}}}} ({{Transliteration|grc|Mousa Paidike}}, "The Boyish Muse").

==Ancient Roman==
Roman epigrams owe much to their Greek predecessors and contemporaries. Roman epigrams, however, were often more satirical than Greek ones, and at times used obscene language for effect. Latin epigrams could be composed as inscriptions or [[graffiti]], such as this one from [[Pompeii]], which exists in several versions and seems from its inexact meter to have been composed by a less educated person. Its content makes it clear how popular such poems were:

{{Poem quote|{{lang|la|Admiror, O paries, te non cecidisse ruinis
qui tot scriptorum taedia sustineas.}}

I'm astonished, wall, that you haven't collapsed into ruins,
since you're holding up the weary verse of so many poets.}}

However, in the literary world, epigrams were most often gifts to patrons or entertaining verse to be published, not inscriptions. Many Roman writers seem to have composed epigrams, including [[Domitius Marsus]], whose collection ''Cicuta'' (now lost) was named after the poisonous plant ''[[Cicuta]]'' for its biting wit, and [[Lucan (poet)|Lucan]], more famous for his epic ''[[Pharsalia]]''. Authors whose epigrams survive include [[Catullus]], who wrote both invectives and love epigrams – his poem&nbsp;85 is one of the latter.

{{Poem quote|{{lang|la|Odi et amo. Quare id faciam fortasse requiris.
Nescio, sed fieri sentio, et excrucior.}}

I hate and I love. Maybe you'd like to know why I do?
I don't know, but I feel it happening, and I am tormented.}}

[[Martial]], however, is considered to be the master of the Latin epigram.<ref name=Fitzgerald2013>
{{cite book
 |first=William  |last=Fitzgerald
 |date=21 February 2013
 |title=How to Read a Latin Poem: If you can't read Latin yet
 |place=Oxford, UK  |publisher=Oxford University Press
 |isbn=978-0-19-163204-4
 |page=81
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDhoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA81
 |via=Google
}}
</ref><ref name=Milnor2014>
{{cite book
 |first=Kristina |last=Milnor
 |year=2014
 |title=Graffiti and the Literary Landscape in Roman Pompeii
 |place=Oxford, UK  |publisher=Oxford University Press
 |isbn=978-0-19-968461-8
 |page=64
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ndbQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA64
 |via=Google
}}
</ref><ref name=Harington2009>
{{cite book
 |first=Sir John |last=Harington
 |year=2009
 |title=The Epigrams of Sir John Harington
 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing
 |isbn=978-0-7546-6002-6
 |page=25
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L3tjygZWWmIC&pg=PA25
 |via=Google
}}
</ref> His technique relied heavily on the satirical poem with a joke in the last line, thus drawing him closer to the modern idea of epigram as a genre. Here he defines his genre against a (probably fictional) critic (in the latter half of 2.77):

{{Poem quote| {{lang|la|Disce quod ignoras: Marsi doctique Pedonis
saepe duplex unum pagina tractat opus.
Non sunt longa quibus nihil est quod demere possis,
sed tu, Cosconi, disticha longa facis.}}

Learn what you don't know: one work of (Domitius) Marsus or learned Pedo
often stretches out over a doublesided page.
A work isn't long if you can't take anything out of it,
but you, Cosconius, write even a couplet too long.}}

Poets known for their epigrams whose work has been lost include [[Cornificia]].

==English==
In early [[English literature]] the short [[couplet]] poem was dominated by the poetic epigram and [[proverb]], especially in the translations of the [[Bible]] and the Greek and [[Latin poetry|Roman poets]].

Two successive lines of verse that rhyme with each other are known as a couplet. Since 1600, the couplet has been featured as a part of the longer [[sonnet]] form, most notably in [[William Shakespeare]]'s sonnets. [[Sonnet 76]] is an example. The two-line poetic form as a [[closed couplet]] was also used by [[William Blake]] in his poem "[[Auguries of Innocence]]", and also by [[Lord Byron|Byron]] in his poem ''[[Don Juan (poem)|Don Juan]]'', by [[John Gay]] in his fables, and by [[Alexander Pope]] in his ''[[An Essay on Man]]''.

The first work of English literature penned in [[North America]] was [[Robert Hayman]]'s ''Quodlibets, Lately Come Over from New Britaniola, Old Newfoundland'', which is a collection of over 300&nbsp;epigrams, many of which do not conform to the two-line rule or trend.  While the collection was written between 1618–1628 in what is now Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, it was published shortly after his return to Britain.<ref>
{{cite book
 |first1=Robert  |last1=Hayman
 |last2=Reynolds |first2=David
 |date=February 2013
 |title=Quodlibets, Lately Come Over from New Britaniola, Old Newfoundland
 |publisher=Problematic Press
 |location=Newfoundland, Canada
 |isbn=9780986902727
 |pages=5–6
 |ref=Quodlibets, Lately Come Over from New Britaniola, Old Newfoundland
}}
</ref> 
 
In [[Victorian literature|Victorian times]], the epigram couplet was often used by the prolific American poet [[Emily Dickinson]]. Her poem No.&nbsp;1534 is a typical example of her eleven poetic epigrams. The novelist [[George Eliot]] also included couplets throughout her writings. Her best example is in her sequenced sonnet poem entitled "Brother and Sister"<ref>
{{cite web
 |first=G. |last=Eliot |author-link=George Eliot
 |title=Brother and Sister
 |type=poem text
 |series=RPO
 |publisher=University of Toronto
 |place=Toronto, ON, CA
 |url=http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2696.html
 |url-status=dead  |access-date=2006-11-13
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070117053014/http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2696.html
 |archive-date=2007-01-17
}}
</ref> in which each of the eleven sequenced sonnets ends with a couplet. In her sonnets, the preceding lead-in-line, to the couplet ending of each, could be thought of as a title for the couplet, as is shown in Sonnet VIII of the sequence.

During the early 20th century, the rhymed epigram couplet form developed into a [[fixed verse]] image form, with an integral title as the third line. [[Adelaide Crapsey]] codified the couplet form into a two-line rhymed verse of ten syllables per line with her image couplet poem ''On Seeing Weather-Beaten Trees'',<ref>
{{cite book
 |first=A. |last=Crapsey |author-link=Adelaide Crapsey
 |date=1 January 1997
 |title=Verse 
 |edition=electronic text
 |url=http://name.umdl.umich.edu/BAE8954.0001.001
 |via=University of Michigan (umdl.umich.edu)
}}
</ref> first published in 1915.

By the 1930s, the five-line [[cinquain]] verse form became widely known in the poetry of the [[Scottish people|Scottish]] poet [[William Soutar]]. These were originally labelled epigrams but later identified as image cinquains in the style of Adelaide Crapsey.

[[J. V. Cunningham]] was also a noted writer of epigrams (a medium suited to a "short-breathed" person).<ref>
{{cite book
 |first=J.V. |last=Cunningham |author-link=J. V. Cunningham
 |year=1997
 |title=The Poems of J.V. Cunningham
 |editor-first=Tomothy |editor-last=Steele
 |publisher=Faber & Faber
 |place=London, UK
 |isbn=978-0-571-24193-4
}}
</ref>

==Poetic epigrams==
{{Copy to Wikiquote|section=yes}}

{{poem quote
|text=What is an epigram? a dwarfish whole,
Its body brevity, and wit its soul. 
|sign=[[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]
|title="Epigram" (1809)
}}


{{poem quote
|text=Some can gaze and not be sick
But I could never learn the trick.
There's this to say for blood and breath;
They give a man a taste for death.
|sign=[[A. E. Housman]]
}}


{{poem quote
|text=Little strokes
Fell great oaks.
|sign=[[Benjamin Franklin]]
}}


{{poem quote
|text=I am His Highness' dog at [[Kew Palace|Kew]];
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
|sign=[[Alexander Pope]]
}}


{{poem quote
|text=I'm tired of Love: I'm still more tired of Rhyme.
But Money gives me pleasure all the time.
|sign=[[Hilaire Belloc]]
}}


{{poem quote
|text=I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.
|sign=[[Nikos Kazantzakis]]
}}


{{poem quote
|text=To define the beautiful is to misunderstand it.
|sign=Charles Robert Anon ([[Fernando Pessoa]])
}}


{{poem quote
|text=This Humanist whom no belief constrained
Grew so broad-minded he was scatter-brained.
|sign=[[J. V. Cunningham]]
}}


{{poem quote
|text=All things pass
Love and mankind is grass.
|sign=[[Stevie Smith]]
}}


{{poem quote
|text=Here lies my wife: here let her lie!
Now she's at rest – and so am I.
|sign=[[John Dryden]]
}}


Epigram about [[John Milton]] (many poets commented on Milton, including [[John Dryden|Dryden]]):<ref>
{{cite web
 |first=J. |last=Dryden  |author-link=John Dryden
 |title=Epigram on Milton
 |orig-year=1688 |date=c. 2010
 |department=For further reading
 |series=English 2310
 |editor-first=Frank |editor-last=Grady
 |type=poem text
 |place=St. Louis, MO  |publisher=[[University of Missouri]]
 |url=http://www.umsl.edu/~gradyf/2310/miltonrep1.htm
 |url-status=live |via=umsl.edu |access-date=2020-01-10
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727164151/https://www.umsl.edu/~gradyf/2310/miltonrep1.htm
 |archive-date=2023-07-27
}}
</ref>
{{poem quote
|text=Three Poets, in three distant Ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.
The First in loftiness of thought surpassed;
The Next in Majesty; in both the Last.
The force of Nature could no farther go:
To make a third she joined the former two.
|sign=[[John Dryden]]
|title="Epigram on Milton" (1688)
}}


Epigram about [[Charles II of England]]:
{{poem quote
|text=We have a pretty witty king,
Whose word no man relies on.
He never said a foolish thing,
And never did a wise one.
|sign=[[John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester]]
}}

==In art==
* ''When guns speak death settles dispute''<ref>
{{cite web
 | title=When guns speak death settles dispute
 | date=4 May 2022
 | place = Tulsa, OK   | publisher = Gilcrease Museum
 | url=https://collections.gilcrease.org/object/01911
 | url-status=live  |via=collections.gilcrease.org  | access-date=25 June 2022
 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240908161602/https://collections.gilcrease.org/object/01911
 | archive-date=8 September 2024
}}
</ref> is [[Charles Marion Russell]]'s epigrammatic title for a clash by [[gunfighter]]s of the [[American frontier|Old West]] in America.<ref>
{{cite book
 | first = C.M. |last = Russell  |author-link = Charles Marion Russell
 | year = 2004
 | title = The Gunfighters
 | location = London, UK  | publisher = Time-Life
 | page = 6
}}
</ref>

==See also==
{{Library resources box
 |label=Epigram |by=no |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes
 |viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle=
}}
* [[Admetus (epigrammatist)]]
* [[Aphorism]]
* [[Epigraph (archeology)]]
* [[Epigraph (literature)]]
* [[Epitaph]]
* [[List of anthologies of Greek epigrams]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|25em}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|25em|small=yes}}
* {{cite book
 |last=Bruss |first=Jon
 |year=2010
 |section=Epigram
 |title=A Companion to Hellenistic Literature
 |editor1-last=James J. |editor1-first=Clauss
 |editor2-first=Martine |editor2-last=Cuypers
 |pages=117–135
 |place=Chichester, UK   |publisher=Blackwell
}}
* {{cite journal
 |last=Day |first=Joseph
 |year=1989
 |title=Rituals in stone: Early Greek grave epigrams and monuments
 |journal=[[Journal of Hellenic Studies]]
 |volume=109 |pages=22–27
}}
* {{cite book
 |last=Gow |first=A.S.F
 |year=1958
 |title=The Greek Anthology: Sources and Ascriptions
 |place=Cambridge, UK   |publisher=Cambridge University Press
}}
* {{cite book
 |editor-last=Henriksén |editor-first=Christer
 |year=2019
 |title=A Companion to Ancient Epigram
 |place=Hoboken, NJ   |publisher=Wiley Blackwell
 |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Companion_to_Ancient_Epigram.html?id=lFj5swEACAAJ
 |via=Google
}}
* {{cite book
 |last=Nisbet |first=Gideon
 |year=2003
 |title=Greek Epigram in the Roman Empire: Martial’s forgotten rivals
 |place=Oxford, UK   |publisher=Oxford University Press
}} 
* {{cite book
 |last=Nixon |first=Paul
 |year=1963
 |title=Martial and the Modern Epigram
 |place=New York, NY   |publisher=Cooper Square
}}
* {{cite journal
 |last=Petrain |first=David
 |year=2012
 |title=The archaeology of the epigrams from the ''tabulae Iliacae'': Adaptation, allusion, alteration
 |journal=[[Mnemosyne (journal)|Mnemosyne]]
 |volume=65 |issue=4–5 |pages=597–635
}}
* {{cite book
 |last=Rimell |first=Victoria
 |year=2008
 |title=Martial’s Rome: Empire and the ideology of epigram
 |place=Cambridge, UK   |publisher=Cambridge University Press
}}
* {{cite book
 |last=Rosen |first=Ralph
 |year=2007
 |section=The hellenistic epigrams on Archilochus and Hipponax
 |title=Brill’s Companion to Hellenistic Epigram: Down to Philip
 |editor1-first=Peter |editor1-last=Bing
 |editor2-first=Jon   |editor2-last=Bruss
 |pages=459–476
 |series=Brill's Companions in Classical Studies
 |place=Leiden, NL   |publisher=Brill
}}
* {{cite journal
 |last=Sullivan |first=John P.
 |year=1990
 |title=Martial and English Poetry
 |journal=[[Classical Antiquity (journal)|Classical Antiquity]]
 |volume=9 |pages=149–174
}}
* {{cite book
 |last=Tarán |first=Sonya Lida
 |year=1979
 |title=The Art of Variation in the Hellenistic Epigram
 |place=Leiden, NL   |publisher=Brill
}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Wikisource}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Epigram}}
* [http://www.thehypertexts.com/epigrams_in_literature_and_poetry.htm Sterling epigrams from literature and poetry]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Epigrammatists]]
[[Category:Genres of poetry]]
[[Category:History of literature]]
[[Category:Poetry]]