Poetry Glossary

A comprehensive glossary of 31,155 literary terms, poetic forms, devices, characters, places, ideas, concepts, and more.

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Faber Est Suae Quisque Fortunae Details

Latin Phrases
AKA:
Every Man Is The Maker Of His Own FortuneEach Is The Craftsman Of His Fate
Every person is the artisan of their own fortune; the belief that individuals shape their own destinies through choices and actions.
Faber est suae quisque fortunae, "every person is the artisan of their own fortune," asserts that individuals create their destinies through choice and action. In poetry, this phrase expresses belief in agency, responsibility, and self-determination. Poets invoke it when praising self-made success, when insisting on accountability, or when resisting victim narratives. The phrase suggests both empowerment and burden, the freedom and weight of being one's fortune's maker. It appears in poems about ambition, achievement, and moral responsibility, where speakers either embrace or question the premise that outcomes reflect choices, that fortune is truly self-made rather than granted, that success or failure belongs to individuals rather than circumstances beyond control.
Example: A poem about self-determination asserts "faber est suae quisque fortunae—each forges their own fate"; Contemporary verse uses it when praising agency: "Remember faber est suae quisque fortunae"; A poem about responsibility invokes the phrase: "Faber est suae quisque fortunae means I cannot blame circumstances"; Verse about success employs it: "She lived faber est suae quisque fortunae, making her own luck"; A metapoetic reflection might question "Is anyone truly faber est suae quisque fortunae?"; Poets either embrace or resist the premise that we are artisans of our own fortune
Notes: This phrase asserts that individuals create their own destinies through choice and action. Roman statesman Appius Claudius Caecus coined it, expressing belief in agency, responsibility, self-determination. Poets invoke faber est suae quisque fortunae when praising self-made success, when insisting on accountability, when resisting victim narratives. Related to American self-reliance, to Stoic ethics of self-mastery, and to debates about whether outcomes reflect choices or circumstances. Useful for understanding poems about ambition, achievement, and moral responsibility. The phrase suggests both empowerment—you control your fate—and burden—you're responsible for your failures. Contemporary poets increasingly critique faber est suae quisque fortunae as ideology that ignores structural barriers, that blames individuals for situations beyond their control, that pretends everyone faces equal opportunity. The phrase illustrates how same words function differently across contexts: empowering for some, oppressive accusation for others facing impossible circumstances.

Fable Details

Genre
AKA:
Animal FableMoral TaleAllegorical StoryApologueTeaching Story
A narrative in verse or prose that uses animals or inanimate objects as characters to convey a moral lesson
A fable is a brief, didactic narrative—often featuring anthropomorphized animals, plants, or inanimate objects—that conveys a moral lesson through allegory and simple plot structure; originating in ancient oral traditions and codified by writers like Aesop, fables use concise language, clear cause-and-effect logic, and symbolic characters to teach ethical principles, social norms, or practical wisdom in an accessible, memorable form.
Example: Aesop’s “The Tortoise and the Hare” teaching perseverance; “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” warning against dishonesty; “The Ant and the Grasshopper” advocating preparation; “The Lion and the Mouse” showing kindness repaid
Notes: A fable is a brief, often didactic or moralistic, narrative featuring anthropomorphized animals, plants, or inanimate objects that act as characters, conveying a practical lesson (the moral); while often prose, a poetic fable gains an extra layer of memorability and rhythm from its verse structure.

Fable Poem Details

Form
AKA:
Verse FableMoralistic PoemBeast-Tale In VerseApologue Poem
A poem that recounts a brief moral tale, typically featuring allegorical characters such as animals
A fable poem is a poetic rendition of a fable, blending narrative storytelling with lyrical form to deliver a moral lesson through verse; it typically employs meter, rhyme, and figurative language to enhance the allegorical impact, often using animal characters and symbolic settings while maintaining the brevity and didactic purpose of traditional prose fables, adapted to the expressive possibilities of poetic diction.
Example: Blake’s The Lamb: “Little Lamb, who made thee?” presenting innocence through animal metaphor; The Tyger: “Tyger Tyger, burning bright” as a fable of creation and fear
Notes: A fable poem is a poem structured as a fable, using a short narrative with non-human characters to teach a moral or general truth about human nature; its poetic form may utilize devices like meter and rhyme to enhance the narrative's rhythm and its overall memorability and impact.

Fable Verse Details

Genre
AKA:
Moral VerseAnimal Poetry
Poetry that tells moral stories using animals or inanimate objects
Fable verse is narrative poetry that imparts moral lessons through anthropomorphized animals or symbolic characters, following Aesopic tradition; it uses simple diction and clear causality to make ethical insights accessible, often with ironic or satirical undertones.
Example: Fable verse: "The fox said, ‘Flattery feeds no one’" (La Fontaine); "Ant to grasshopper: ‘Winter sings a colder tune’" (Aesop-inspired); "Crow with cheese learns pride’s price" (modern retelling); "Tortoise dreams in hexameter" (student fable)
Notes: Verse telling moral tale, often with animal characters. Ancient tradition—Aesop. Didactic purpose with narrative. Related: beast fable, allegory, parable. Study: how moral emerges without heavy-handedness.

Fable-Like Fusion Details

Device
AKA:
Moralistic BlendFable Merger
Blending moralistic fable elements with narrative for allegorical insight.
Fable-like fusion merges animal tales with human drama, Aesopic in La Fontaine, fused in Orwellian verse. Poets use it to teach subtly, engaging fancy. This device appears to moralize playfully, bridging didactic-artistic. Fusion fable-like enriches wisdom's delivery.
Example: Aesop fables fuse morals in animal tales; Hypothetical: Fusing fox-crow with modern greed; La Fontaine fable fusions; George Orwell fable-like "Animal Farm" poetry; Jean de La Fontaine moral fusions.
Notes: Fable-like fusion moralizes allegorically, Aesopic blend; merge tales; La Fontaine fuses animals; usage: for insight; scholars trace fabliau.

Fabliau Details

Genre
AKA:
Medieval TaleComic Story-VerseBawdy NarrativeFrench Tale
A short, comic, and often ribald medieval narrative poem in verse, featuring trickery, satire, and lower-class characters in urban or domestic settings.
A fabliau is a short, comic, often bawdy narrative poem originating in medieval France, characterized by earthy humor, trickery, and satire of social types (especially clergy, merchants, and cuckolds); written in octosyllabic couplets, it influenced Chaucer’s "Canterbury Tales" (e.g., "The Miller’s Tale"), using brisk pacing, irony, and moral ambiguity to expose human folly and subvert courtly ideals, thereby establishing a vernacular tradition of realism and social critique in European poetry.
Example: Fabliau: Chaucer’s “The Miller’s Tale” with its bawdy trickery; “A baker, his wife, and a lusty clerk” (medieval); Modern fabliau: “The landlord’s key opens more than doors” (contemporary); “She swapped his wig for a nest of sparrows” (satirical verse)
Notes: Medieval French comic tale in verse. Often bawdy, satirical. Short narrative form. Chaucer adapted in Canterbury Tales. Related: fable verse, fabliaux tradition. Note: social criticism through humor.

Fabulinus Details

Mythology
AKA:
Speech GodChildren's WordsEloquence Patron
God who granted children the power of speech, honored in early childhood rites.
Fabulinus presided over a child’s first words, marking a key developmental milestone. In poetry, he appears in domestic or elegiac contexts, symbolizing the dawn of reason, social integration, and the vulnerability of early life—often invoked alongside other birth deities like Lucina.
Example: Fabulinus, god who grants first speech to children, inspires tender verse: "Fabulinus touched the babe’s lips—'Mama' rang clear in the nursery"; Though obscure, he appears in domestic hymns: "To Fabulinus we offer honey—sweet be the child’s first word"; In elegy for lost youth: "Fabulinus gave speech, but death stole the voice too soon"; Symbol of beginnings: "Every orator owes a debt to Fabulinus."
Notes: Fabulinus presided over a child’s first utterance—typically “papa” or “mama”—and was honored with honey offerings to ensure sweet, articulate speech; his name derives from “fabulari” (to speak); though obscure, he appears in antiquarian sources like Macrobius; he represents the Roman attention to developmental milestones and the sacredness of language; poets might reference him in domestic verse, lullabies, or elegies for children who died before speech; he underscores how Roman religion sanctified even the smallest human transitions.

Fac Et Spera Details

Latin Phrases
AKA:
Do And HopeAct And HopeMake And Hope
A Latin exhortation meaning "do and hope," urging bold action while maintaining faith in the outcome; in poetry, it embodies the ethic of risk, courage, and perseverance against uncertainty.
Fac et spera is a motto that balances action and faith, the doing and the hoping. In poetry, it appears in verse of moral encouragement, in poems about perseverance, and in devotional verse where human effort and divine grace are seen as partners. The two imperatives, acting and hoping, are held in creative tension, neither collapsing into passive faith nor into anxious self-reliance. The phrase has an elegant brevity that suits it to inscriptions, epitaphs, and the concentrated form of lyric verse.
Example: The Scots motto fac et spera appears in many contexts of colonial settlement and of perseverance under adversity, and it generated a tradition of verse about the faith required to act without certainty of outcome; A student writing a poem about embarking on an uncertain creative project might use fac et spera as a structuring principle — the courage of beginning combined with the faith that something good will emerge; George Herbert's poetry is saturated with fac et spera — the discipline of devotional practice maintained in hope, even when feeling and consolation have withdrawn; A poet writing a poem of encouragement for someone beginning a difficult endeavor might use fac et spera as both structure and message — act fully, hope genuinely, trust the process; The Protestant work ethic as it appears in seventeenth-century devotional poetry is an expression of fac et spera — the conviction that diligent labor combined with active trust in Providence is the right posture before God and the world
Notes: Fac et spera is a compact motto that balances the active and the receptive — the doing (fac) and the hoping (spera) — without collapsing either into the other. Students should note the theological dimension: in Christian thought, fac et spera reflects the cooperation of human effort (the active life, vita activa) and divine grace (the gift of hope). This is different from both Pelagianism (the heresy that humans can earn salvation through their own efforts alone) and from quietism (the position that human effort is irrelevant and one should simply wait on God). The phrase occupies the middle ground of orthodox Christianity: act fully and do your best, but maintain hope as a gift from beyond yourself rather than as a consequence of your own achievement. Related terms include spes (hope), labora (work), and the Benedictine motto ora et labora (pray and work), which shares the same balance.

Facade Details

Architecture
AKA:
FaçadeFrontElevationPretence
The principal outward-facing side of a building. In poetry, it suggests appearance, public identity, or a surface that conceals deeper realities.
A facade presents a building to the street, often arranging doors, windows, and ornament into a deliberate public face. Poets use it to explore masks, reputation, performance, and the difference between what is displayed and what is lived behind it. A shining facade may conceal abandonment, while a damaged one may expose private history. The term is especially useful in poems about cities, class, institutions, or speakers who distrust the images they have learned to present.
Example: “Behind the bright facade, the house kept its silence” contrasts outward appearance with hidden reality; A poet might describe a smiling face as “a facade painted against sorrow”; “The city’s glass facade reflected a sky it could not touch” uses facade to explore surface and distance; In a dramatic monologue, a formal, polished voice can function as a facade hiding the speaker’s fear
Notes: A facade is the public face rather than the whole building. It is useful when contrasting performance, reputation, or beauty with concealed truth.

Face Details

Anatomy
AKA:
VisageCountenanceCome To Grips With
The front of the head, associated with identity, expression, recognition, and public presence.
A face in poetry can be a map of emotion, age, history, or social expectation. It may be remembered in fragments, obscured by shadow, altered by grief, or reflected in a mirror. Because faces allow recognition, they often carry themes of intimacy and estrangement: a speaker may search for a lost face, wear a masklike face, or discover an ancestor's features in their own. Poets use facial detail to make abstract feeling immediate and human.
Example: “The face that launched a thousand ships” from Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus shows how a face can become an emblem of beauty and conflict; “A face in every window” can create an atmosphere of surveillance or longing; A poet might write “rain revised the face of the road” to use face for a visible surface; “His face was a map of weather” can reveal emotion through changing expression
Notes: The face is a public surface where private feeling becomes visible. Masks, turned faces, and unfamiliar reflections can explore identity, shame, aging, social roles, or the gap between appearance and self.

Face At Full Value Details

Idiomatic Phrase
AKA:
Take At Face ValueAccept Without Question
To accept something at its apparent or stated worth without questioning ulterior motives or hidden meanings.
This phrase asks the reader to consider the seductive simplicity of taking things as they appear, without suspicious inquiry into what lies beneath the surface. In poetry, it raises epistemological questions about reading—whether poems can or should be taken at face value, and what is lost or gained by looking past the literal. Poets invoke it to explore naivety, trust, and the dangers of credulity in a world where surfaces routinely deceive. It also celebrates a certain kind of faith—the willingness to accept beauty, love, or goodness without relentless interrogation of its cost. The phrase thus sits at the intersection of skepticism and faith that much lyric poetry inhabits.
Example: A poem about trust might explore the decision to accept another's word at face value — and what it costs and what it gives to resist the habit of suspicious interpretation; In a poem about reading poetry, to take a poem at face value might be proposed as both naivety and a form of respect — the decision to receive what the poem offers without immediately dismantling it with interpretation; The phrase suits philosophical poems about epistemology — the impossibility of knowing whether any account of the world is accurate, and the exhausting alternative to accepting some things at face value; A love poem might describe the act of accepting the beloved's declaration at face value as an act not of naivety but of grace — the decision to believe what is offered even knowing that belief carries risk; In a poem about childhood, to take the world at face value is the child's natural mode — and the loss of that capacity, as experience teaches that surfaces routinely deceive, is one of the central elegiac subjects of the lyric tradition; The phrase works reflexively in poems about language itself — the question of whether words can ever be taken at face value, or whether every utterance must be read against the grain of its own possible self-deception
Notes: The more common phrase is “take at face value,” so “face at full value” may be treated as a variant or gloss. The idea is acceptance without probing beneath appearance. In poetry, it relates to masks, surfaces, portraits, coins, and social performance. It is useful when a speaker learns that literal appearance is not the same as truth.

Face Like Thunder Details

Idiomatic Phrase
AKA:
Thunderous Expression
Face like thunder: An idiom describing a facial expression of extreme anger, displeasure, or sternness, suggesting a stormy and intimidating countenance that warns of impending outburst.
This meteorological metaphor conveys volatile emotion through facial demeanor. In poetry, it often introduces confrontations, judgments, or moments of wrath—divine or human. Poets use it to externalize inner storms, making anger visible and atmospheric. Its dramatic imagery suits theatrical or narrative verse, where a single glance can shift power dynamics, foreshadow conflict, or embody the terror of authority, linking personal emotion to cosmic forces of disruption and warning.
Example: Authority figure: “Principal’s face like thunder when she found the graffiti”; Domestic tension: “His face like thunder over burnt toast—small things magnify hidden storms”; Weather metaphor: “Sky’s face like thunder before protest march, air thick with coming clash”; Emotional warning: “Don’t approach—her face like thunder, grief freshly ripped open.”
Notes: This meteorological metaphor conveys volatile emotion through facial demeanor. In poetry, it introduces confrontations, judgments, or moments of wrath—divine or human. Its dramatic imagery suits theatrical or narrative verse, where a single glance shifts power dynamics. Students should note its contrast with “stony silence”—this is active anger. Related phrases include “thunderous glare” and “stormy look.” In parental poetry, it captures discipline; in political verse, it embodies authoritarianism. Effective when paired with consequence: “Principal’s face like thunder when she found the graffiti—detention for all.”

Face The Consequences Details

Idiomatic Phrase
AKA:
Reap What One SowsPay The Piper
To accept responsibility for and endure the results of one’s choices, especially when those results are difficult, unpleasant, or unavoidable.
This phrase places responsibility directly before the body, asking a person to stand before what has followed from a choice. In poetry, consequences may appear as unpaid debts, returning ghosts, changed landscapes, or a lover’s closed door. The expression gives moral conflict a dramatic posture, as though the speaker must meet the future without turning away.
Example: A poem about wrongdoing may say, “Now I must face the consequences of the door I chose”; The phrase means accepting the results of one’s actions; A poet could connect consequences with harvest, echo, or returning footsteps; Its direct language helps a speaker move from denial toward responsibility.
Notes: To face the consequences means to accept what follows from one’s choices or behavior, whether the results are fair, difficult, or unpleasant. It often carries a moral sense of accountability. Related phrases include “reap what one sows” and “own one’s actions.”

Face The Facts Details

Idiomatic Phrase
AKA:
Face The MusicFace RealityFace The TruthLook The Facts In The Face
To acknowledge and accept a situation as it truly is, especially when it is difficult, unpleasant, or uncomfortable, rather than ignoring or denying it.
Face the facts means to accept reality honestly, especially when it is painful, inconvenient, or contrary to hope. In poetry, the idiom can mark a moment of maturity, disillusionment, confession, or moral reckoning. The face image suggests direct encounter rather than avoidance: truth must be looked at. A poet may use it when a character stops denying illness, loss, betrayal, ageing, or guilt. The phrase is useful for exploring courage, realism, and the movement from comforting illusion to difficult clarity.
Example: Reality check: "It's time to face the facts of our fragile existence."; Honest: "Heroes face the facts before rising stronger from ashes."; Example: "Drives character development in narrative verse."; "She finally chose to face the facts."
Notes: Reality confrontation, drives growth in character development arcs. Educational for honesty motifs. Suggests accepting difficult truths. Use in dramatic monologues or narrative turns. Contrasts with denial. Enhances psychological realism. Pair with imagery of mirrors or light. Study Ibsen-influenced poetry for thematic parallels.

Face The Music Details

Idiomatic Phrase
AKA:
Accept ConsequencesFace The Facts
To confront unpleasant consequences or responsibilities directly.
Theatrical or military in origin—facing the orchestra pit or inspection—this idiom demands accountability. In poetry, it marks turning points: confession, reckoning, or moral courage. Used in dramatic monologues (Browning) or war elegies, it signifies agency amid adversity. The musical metaphor adds performative weight: life as stage, consequence as score. Poets leverage its rhythmic finality to underscore irreversible choices, making it apt for poems about justice, maturity, or the cost of truth-telling in personal or public spheres.
Example: Shelley’s “Ozymandias” forces kings to face the music of time’s judgment; A confession poem: “I faced the music of my lies when her eyes met mine”; In accountability verse: “CEOs must face the music as glaciers melt from their greed”; Graduation advice: “Success means facing the music—own your stumbles as much as your strides”.
Notes: Theatrical or military in origin—facing the orchestra pit or inspection—this idiom demands accountability. In poetry, it marks turning points: confession, reckoning, or moral courage. Used in Browning’s dramatic monologues or war elegies, it signifies agency amid adversity. The musical metaphor adds performative weight: life as stage, consequence as score. Students can explore how poets leverage its rhythmic finality to underscore irreversible choices, making it apt for poems about justice, maturity, or the cost of truth-telling in personal or public spheres.

Face Value Details

Idiomatic Phrase
AKA:
Apparent Worth
The apparent significance or worth of something, taken at its most basic, superficial level without looking for hidden meanings or deeper implications.
Face value means the apparent or stated worth, meaning, or truth of something, without deeper questioning. In poetry, taking something at face value may be naive, generous, literal-minded, or deliberately resistant to interpretation. The phrase is useful for poems about masks, appearances, money, promises, beauty, and deceit. It invites readers to ask what lies beneath the surface: a smile, a document, a lover’s vow, or a political slogan. In literary study, it also warns against reducing a poem to its most obvious meaning.
Example: A poet may warn that compliments should not always be taken at face value; In a political poem, the ruler's smile at face value hides a threat; The phrase suits poems about appearance and reality; A lyric speaker might learn not to accept love letters at face value.
Notes: Face value means the apparent worth or meaning of something before deeper interpretation. In poetry, the phrase is valuable because poetry itself often resists face-value reading. It can be used for coins, masks, portraits, promises, social roles, and literal versus symbolic meaning. Students should ask what lies beneath the surface: irony, hidden grief, coded politics, unreliable speech, or a truth disguised as simplicity.

Faceted Haiku Details

Form
AKA:
Multi-Perspective HaikuPrismatic HaikuAngular HaikuCrystalline Haiku
A haiku with multiple reflecting surfaces of meaning, like a cut gemstone
A faceted haiku presents a single moment or image through multiple sensory or perspectival “facets,” akin to a cut gem reflecting light differently from each angle; this modern variation expands traditional haiku’s brevity into layered perception, often using enjambment or juxtaposition for dimensional depth.
Example: Traditional haiku like Bashō’s “Old pond” use seasonal words as facets; contemporary poets like Sonia Sanchez use haiku to capture urban facets; Richard Wright’s haiku capture racial facets in America; Etheridge Knight’s haiku blend prison life with nature facets; contemporary poets like Kwame Dawes use haiku for pandemic facets; Ocean Vuong’s micro-poems function as faceted haiku on trauma.
Notes: Faceted haiku is a haiku that presents multiple perspectives or “facets,” like a jewel; it encourages layered imagery.

Facetious Verse Details

Genre
AKA:
Playful VerseWitty Poetry
Poetry marked by playful wit, light irony, and irreverent humor, often mocking conventions while maintaining technical skill and charm.
Facetious verse is lighthearted, often witty poetry that treats serious subjects with deliberate levity or playful irreverence; it employs puns, hyperbole, and mock-heroic tone to entertain while subtly critiquing norms or pretensions.
Example: Facetious verse: “Ode to My Socks (They’re Argyle and Smug)” (parody); “My cat filed for custody of my couch” (light verse); “Sonnet for a Stubborn Wi-Fi Signal” (humorous); “Elegy for a Lost Parking Spot” (ironic tone)
Notes: Light verse emphasizing humor and wit. Distinct from serious lyric by playful tone. Study with occasional verse and vers de société.

Facial Expression Details

Performance
AKA:
Facial GestureFacial Affect
The use of the face to communicate emotional and rhetorical shifts. It can reinforce or complicate the words being spoken.
Facial expression gives audiences visual access to a performer’s changing relationship with a poem. A restrained expression may preserve ambiguity, while a fleeting smile, tightened jaw, or widened eyes can underline irony, fear, delight, or disbelief. In intimate venues and recorded readings, these small movements may carry considerable force. Effective facial expression does not simply duplicate the poem’s stated emotion; it can reveal tension between what the speaker says and what the speaker feels.
Example: A performer reading a humorous poem lets a small smile appear only at the punch line, rather than smiling throughout the whole piece; In a poem about betrayal, the reader's tightened jaw and briefly averted eyes can communicate hurt without exaggerated gestures; While performing a child speaker's poem of wonder, a poet uses widened eyes as the speaker notices a first snowfall; A reader of Sylvia Plath's "Mirror" might maintain a calm, impassive expression to support the poem's detached speaking voice
Notes: Facial expression can reveal a speaker’s attitude, irony, vulnerability, or change of thought. Keep expressions connected to the words and avoid exaggeration unless the poem’s style calls for it.

Facta Non Verba Details

Latin Phrases
AKA:
Deeds Not WordsActions Not Words
Deeds not words; valuing action over speech, the principle that what matters is doing rather than talking.
Facta non verba, "deeds not words," privileges action over speech, doing over talking. In poetry, this phrase creates paradox—poetry is words asserting words' insufficiency. Poets invoke it when expressing frustration with rhetoric divorced from action, when demanding accountability, or when claiming their poems are themselves actions. The phrase suggests both skepticism about language and faith in concrete accomplishment. It appears in poems about political hypocrisy, romantic betrayal, and the gap between profession and performance, where speakers demand that words be backed by corresponding deeds, that speech be verified through action, creating irony as poetry—made of words—insists that words aren't enough, that saying must be matched by doing.
Example: A poem frustrated with rhetoric declares "facta non verba—deeds not words matter now"; Contemporary verse uses it when demanding action: "Facta non verba: I'm done with your promises"; A poem about hypocrisy invokes the phrase: "Facta non verba: your actions contradict your speech"; Verse about integrity employs "facta non verba" as standard; A metapoetic reflection might note the paradox: "Facta non verba, says the poem made of words"; Poets demanding accountability invoke "facta non verba" while recognizing the irony
Notes: Facta non verba privileges action over speech, doing over talking. When poets use the phrase, they create paradox—poetry is words asserting words' insufficiency. Related to ancient skepticism about rhetoric divorced from action, to demands that profession be verified through performance. Useful for understanding poems about political hypocrisy, romantic betrayal, the gap between stated values and actual behavior. The phrase expresses frustration with mere talk, demanding that words be backed by corresponding deeds. Contemporary poets invoke facta non verba when calling out performative allyship, virtue signaling, promises unmatched by commitment. The phrase is particularly effective because it acknowledges its own irony—using words to insist words aren't enough creates productive tension. The phrase also relates to questions about poetry's efficacy: is writing poems action or just more words? Can facta non verba apply to poetry, or does poetry necessarily remain on the verba side?
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