0 a piece of writing in which the words are arranged in separate lines, often ending in rhyme, and are chosen for their sound and for the images and ideas they suggest:
1 a piece of writing in which the words are carefully chosen for the images and ideas they suggest, and in which the sounds of the words when read aloud often follow a particular rhythmic pattern
My father can still recite the poems he learned off by heart at school.
He gave an inspirational reading of his own poems.
He gave a beautiful recitation of some poems by Blake.
The regular pattern of alternating long and short syllables, which is reversed only in the middle, accounts for the measured pace of both poems.
The 1847 draft is not extant, but the 1860 revision survives along with the 1870 poem that was finally published.
The poem tells the reader a number of things.
