Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A poem consisting of a single line.
  • noun A single line of poetry.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A single or isolated verse; also, an epigram or a poem consisting of but one verse.
  • Consisting of a single line or verse.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A composition consisting of one verse only.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a poem consisting of a title and a single line

Etymologies

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Examples

  • After this stanza (the fourth line is "Assemblage... destructive reductions," - in case the blog format breaks it) is a quotation from Tate Modern, followed by the monostich "history shaping itself organically", then a lengthy quotation from Leo Steinberg, and then this stanza (what I read as one stanza; there is a new page after "...personal information".)

    GHOST DANCE IN 33 MOVEMENTS by ANNY BALLARDINI EILEEN 2009

  • A minor poet called Admetus told him he had inserted a clause in his will for the inscribing on his tomb of a monostich, which I will give:

    Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 03 of Samosata Lucian 1895

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