poem Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a composition written in metrical feet forming rhythmical lines
    verse form.

WordNet

Po"em noun
Etymology
L. poëma, Gr. , fr. to make, to compose, to write, especially in verse: cf. F. poëme.
Definitions
  1. A metrical composition; a composition in verse written in certain measures, whether in blank verse or in rhyme, and characterized by imagination and poetic diction; -- contradistinguished from prose; as, the poems of Homer or of Milton.
  2. A composition, not in verse, of which the language is highly imaginative or impassioned; as, a prose poem; the poems of Ossian.

Webster 1913