Literary notes about Epigram (AI summary)
In literature, “epigram” is used to denote a brief, incisive remark that encapsulates wit, satire, or keen observation. It may famously be inscribed on monuments or tombs ([1], [2]), yet it also appears as a playful, pointed commentary on society or individual character traits ([3], [4]). Authors deploy epigrams to deliver moral critiques or humorous reversals with economical language, transforming a fleeting idea into a memorable, concentrated statement of truth or folly ([5], [6], [7]). This versatile form has been embraced across genres, its brevity and design lending both levity and depth to literary expression ([8], [9]).
- And they say that this epigram is inscribed upon his tomb at Syracuse.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius - [ This epigram (de Sene Veronensi qui suburbium nusquam egres sus est) is one of the earliest and most pleasing compositions of Claudian.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - In upright, honest morals. H2 anchor Epigram On Mr. James Gracie Gracie, thou art a man of worth, O be thou Dean for ever!
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns - In the Epigram To True Soldiers Jonson says: —I love Your great profession, which I once did prove.
— from The Devil is an Ass by Ben Jonson - He takes another man’s idea, tacks on to it its antithesis, and the epigram is made.
— from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - In this epigram, however, Martial threatens the eye and not the anus.”
— from The Satyricon — Complete by Petronius Arbiter - “We know by an epigram of Martial that at this time——” I interrupted him: “I don't care what she was.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - A witty saying, for example, will not make a sonnet; in French or Italian it belongs to the domain of epigram.”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - In ratiocination, not less than in literature, it is the epigram which is the most immediately and the most universally appreciated.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1 by Edgar Allan Poe
