Distich

The distich (couplet) is the simplest stanza of two lines, usually united by adjacent rhyme or, as in the ancient elegiac distich, by the metrical correlation of hexameter and pentameter. Owing to its terseness and completeness, the couplet lends itself well to aphoristic, didactic and satirical utterances, and it is therefore widespread in folk sayings, epigrams and fable morals. A distich may be an independent micro-work or a building block of larger stanzaic structures. Its laconism demands semantic concentration from the author: a completed thought must fit into two lines. In the Ukrainian tradition the couplet lives both in bookish poetry and in folk genres of short form.