A heroic couplet is a common style of English poetry, often used in long stories or poems. It consists of two rhyming lines that follow a rhythm called iambic pentameter. This form was first used by Geoffrey Chaucer in his works The Legend of Good Women and The Canterbury Tales. Later, during the Restoration Age and the early 18th century, John Dryden and Alexander Pope improved and refined the use of the heroic couplet.

Example

A commonly used example showing how heroic couplets are used comes from the poem Cooper's Hill by John Denham. This passage is part of his description of the Thames:

"Oh, if only I could flow like you, and let your stream be my great example, which is also my main topic! Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not boring; strong without anger, without being too full."

History

The term "heroic couplet" is sometimes used for pairs of lines that are complete and separate, unlike the run-on couplets found in the works of poets like John Donne. This form is often linked to the English Baroque poetry of John Dryden and Alexander Pope, who used it in their translated versions of the stories by Virgil and Homer. Important poems written in this closed couplet style, besides those by Dryden and Pope, include Samuel Johnson's The Vanity of Human Wishes, Oliver Goldsmith's The Deserted Village, and John Keats's Lamia. This form was very popular during the 18th century. A less strict type of couplet, which sometimes continues from one line to the next, was a common type of poetry in medieval storytelling, largely because of the influence of The Canterbury Tales.

Variations

English heroic couplets, which are pairs of rhyming lines, are sometimes changed by using longer lines with more syllables, called alexandrine or hexameter lines, or by using three rhyming lines, called triplets. These changes are often used together to create a strong ending in a poem. When the usual pattern of rhyming lines with ten syllables each is broken, it gives the reader a feeling that the poem is coming to an end. Here are two examples from Book IV of Dryden's translation of the Aeneid:

Her proud horse, in the court below,
Seems to recognize his noble rider,
Proud in his purple decorations,
Paws the ground, chews on the golden bit,
And spreads foam around.

My Tyrians, following their queen's command,
Threw fire into the Trojan group;
They destroyed the name of the unfaithful,
And I, to punish my own shame,
Fell onto the fire to help the funeral flames.

Modern use

In the 20th century, some writers used the heroic couplet, a poetic form with two rhyming lines, as a way to reference older works by earlier poets. One example is Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Pale Fire, which includes a 999-line, four-part poem in the second section. This poem is mostly written in loose heroic couplets, with lines that often continue without a pause between them. Here is an example from the first part of the poem:

And then black night. That blackness was sublime. I felt distributed through space and time: One foot upon a mountaintop. One hand Under the pebbles of a panting strand, One ear in Italy, one eye in Spain, In caves, my blood, and in the stars, my brain.

— (Canto One. 147–153)

The use of heroic couplets in translating ancient Greek and Roman epics has also influenced translations of non-Western works into English. In 2021, Vietnamese translator Nguyen Binh translated the Vietnamese epic poem Tale of Kiều, converting the original’s lục bát couplets into heroic couplets. Binh cited John Dryden and Alexander Pope as important influences, and their translation imitated the spelling style of Dryden and Pope’s works to reflect the medieval tone of the original Vietnamese text. An example of this translation is shown below:

One mounted, one released the other’s coat, The autumn maples dyed with roads remote. Red miles cast dust upon the faring steed; He disappear’d behind the berry mead. One stay’d as shadow through the hours of night, One left alone for great miles out of sight. Who had cut up the rounded moon in two, Half shining cushions, half on miles that grew?