# A name for this kind of poem

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-name-for-this-kind-of-poem/575345>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 20, 2011, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-name-for-this-kind-of-poem/575345 "2011-03-20T10:52:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-name-for-this-kind-of-poem/575345/1 "2011-03-20T10:52:23Z")

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The kind of poetic genre where the various parts of a girl is compared to flowers. Does it have a name?  
e.g. Spenser:  
Her lips did smell lyke vnto Gillyflowers,  
her ruddy cheekes lyke vnto Roses red:  
her snowy browes lyke budded Bellamoures,  
her louely eyes lyke Pincks but newly spred,  
Her goodly bosome lyke a Strawberry bed,  
etc.

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**Author:** ![Gil-Martin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Gil-Martin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gil-Martin)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-name-for-this-kind-of-poem/575345/2 "2011-03-20T15:58:05Z")

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This is from Spenser’s _Amoretti and Epithalamium_. The poetry you quote comes from a sonnet cycle, and I suppose you could say that’s the genre you’re looking for. However, none of this requires flower-specific metaphors. I think the word you’re looking for might actually be conceit, which, from the first Google result I could fine, is a “fanciful poetic image or metaphor that likens one thing to something else that is seemingly very different.” From this Glossary of Poetry Terms: [Infoplease.com](http://Infoplease.com) [Glossary of Poetry Terms](http://www.infoplease.com/spot/pmglossary1.html#ixzz1H9ewuGs0)

Is that helpful? If not, I have a couple literature/poetry books stashed somewhere on one of my bookshelves.

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**Author:** ![Gil-Martin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Gil-Martin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gil-Martin)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-name-for-this-kind-of-poem/575345/3 "2011-03-20T16:04:02Z")

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More information about genre and this particular poem can be found by searching Epithalamium at wikipedia, where you can read that it is “a form of poem that is written specifically for the bride on the way to her marital chamber,” and that “perhaps no poem of this class has been more universally admired than the pastoral Epithalamion of Edmund Spenser (1595).”

> **[Epithalamium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epithalamium)**
>
> An epithalamium (/ˌɛpɪθəˈleɪmiəm/; Latin form of Greek ἐπιθαλάμιον epithalamion from ἐπί epi "upon," and θάλαμος thalamos nuptial chamber) is a poem written specifically for the bride on the way to her marital chamber. This form continued in popularity through the history of the classical world; the Roman poet Catullus wrote a famous epithalamium, which was translated from or at least inspired by a now-lost work of Sappho. According to Origen, the Song of Songs might be an epithalamium on the ma...

And for some reason I’m wanting to say something about the poetry term _blazon_, but I’m not sure. It’s been a long time since poetry class, and I was not really a fan of this particular form when I was there.

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**Author:** ![Gil-Martin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Gil-Martin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gil-Martin)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-name-for-this-kind-of-poem/575345/4 "2011-03-20T16:55:32Z")

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> [@Gil-Martin](#):
>
> . . . metaphors.

Or similes. Sorry. I’ll now remove myself from this thread. I’m having a bad morning.

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**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-name-for-this-kind-of-poem/575345/5 "2011-03-20T17:01:19Z")

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> [@Gil-Martin](#):
>
> And for some reason I’m wanting to say something about the poetry term _blazon_, but I’m not sure. It’s been a long time since poetry class, and I was not really a fan of this particular form when I was there.

No, you’re absolutely right: the blazon involves listing the various parts of the girl’s face or body and comparing them to things (although these don’t have to be flowers – Sidney has a sonnet where he compares the girl’s features to the different parts of a building, for example).