A pericope is a self-contained passage or excerpt from a longer poetic or scriptural work that is often read or studied independently due to its thematic coherence, rhetorical power, or liturgical significance; in poetry, pericopes function as microcosms that encapsulate core ideas, images, or emotional arcs—such as a single stanza from Dante’s "Divine Comedy" used in meditation—and their extraction highlights the density and portability of poetic language, allowing focused interpretation while still resonating with the broader context from which they originate.

Self-contained passage from longer work. Biblical scholarship term. Relevant for poets extracting or creating autonomous sections within sequences. Consider how excerpts function independently versus in context.