Bakhtin's term describes the polyphonic nature of language. In poetry, heteroglossia appears in works that mix registers—colloquial, formal, dialectal—creating a dialogic texture. This technique challenges a unified poetic voice, representing the multiplicity of social perspectives. Poetry can celebrate this diversity, showing that language is a living, contested field, full of tensions and creative possibilities inherent in everyday speech.

Heteroglossia, a key concept of Mikhail Bakhtin, refers to the coexistence of distinct linguistic varieties, styles, and voices within a single language. It is the "social diversity of speech types," reflecting the fact that language is not a unified system but a living, contested field of different social dialects, professional jargons, and individual idiolects. In poetry, heteroglossia appears in works that mix different registers—colloquial speech, formal rhetoric, street slang, literary quotations—creating a polyphonic texture. A poem by T.S. Eliot or Walt Whitman is a classic example, as it incorporates a multitude of voices. For poets, using heteroglossia can challenge the idea of a unified poetic voice, embracing the diversity and complexity of social reality, and making poetry a more vibrant, democratic form of expression.