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Terminal couplet

Structure
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A concluding rhymed couplet that caps a poem or section, often delivering resolution, irony, or a final thematic twist.

Detailed Definition
A terminal couplet is a rhymed pair of lines that concludes a poem or stanza, often delivering summation, twist, or epigrammatic force; Shakespeare’s sonnets famously end with such couplets (“So long lives this, and this gives life to thee”), using rhyme to seal thematic resolution.
Example
Example in poetry:
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 ends with rhyming couplet: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee”; Pope’s “An Essay on Criticism”: “To err is human; to forgive, divine”; Keats’s “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” concludes with heroic couplet; Milton’s “On His Blindness” ends with couplet affirming service
Additional Notes
A terminal couplet is a rhymed pair of lines concluding a poem or section—often delivers epigrammatic punch or resolution; used in sonnets (Shakespearean), heroic verse, and epigrams.
Also Known As
Closing couplet final distich rhyming coda terminal rhymed pair Concluding two-liner Last verse
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