Didactic Poetry
Preserved but no longer current.
Poetry which uses the beauties of expression, imagination, sentiment, etc., for teaching some moral lesson, as Pope's Essay on Man, or the principle of some art or science, as Virgil's Georgics,, Garth's Dis- pensary, or Darwin's Botanic Garden. (Gr. didasko, I teach.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Didactic Poetry” mean?
Poetry which uses the beauties of expression, imagination, sentiment, etc., for teaching some moral lesson, as Pope's Essay on Man, or the principle of some art or science, as Virgil's Georgics,, Garth's Dis- pensary, or Darwin's Botanic Garden. (Gr. didasko, I teach.
Is “Didactic Poetry” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.