Allusive omission occurs when a poet deliberately leaves gaps in narrative or argument, expecting readers to supply missing information through their recognition of the alluded source material. This technique creates participatory reading experiences where understanding depends on catching literary references and filling in unstated connections. Allusive omission can generate mystery, test literary knowledge, or create ironic distance between knowing and unknowing readers of the poem.

Allusive omission is a technique where a poet makes a reference to a well-known story, myth, or text, but deliberately leaves out key details, forcing the reader to fill in the gaps and deepen the poem's meaning through inference.