Corpus delicti, "body of the crime," refers to physical evidence proving an offense occurred. In poetry, this legal term appears metaphorically, suggesting tangible proof of wrongdoing, suffering, or violation. Poets employ it when demanding evidence, when pointing to undeniable material fact, or when exploring how abstraction requires embodiment. The phrase suggests that certain claims require physical substantiation, that suspicion needs confirmation through concrete sign. It appears in poems about justice, betrayal, and witnessing, where speakers insist on the materiality of harm, on bodies as evidence that suffering is not merely rhetorical or imagined but real, inscribed in flesh that cannot be denied or dismissed as mere interpretation.

Corpus delicti refers to material evidence proving a crime occurred—traditionally the murder victim's body, though the term applies to any physical proof of wrongdoing. Poets use the phrase literally when writing about crime, violence, witness; metaphorically when demanding tangible evidence for abstract claims. Related to questions about proof, verification, and the relationship between material fact and interpretation. The phrase is particularly effective in poems about the body as evidence—abuse, rape, police violence—where physical harm testifies to wrong that might otherwise be denied. Useful for understanding witness poetry, documentary verse, and works insisting on materiality against abstraction. The phrase suggests that certain realities require embodiment to be believed, that suspicion needs confirmation through concrete sign, that bodies are texts that can be read for traces of violence or violation.