Closed Couplet

(50 words)
  • Editors

Short Note This is a short note

An end-stopped, rhymed couplet that contains a complete thought. Such couplets were usual ways of closing and resuming Renaissance sonnets, although they are found elsewhere as well. Here is one which ends Shakespeares Sonnet 94:

For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lillies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

Short notes under 150 words are freely available to all users, but to consult all other articles in the Literary Encyclopedia, you must be logged in as a subscriber. To read about subscribing click here.


Citation:
Editors. "Closed Couplet". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2001
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=196, accessed 22 May 2013.]