Pō'em, n.

n. [Lat. poema, Gr. ποίημα, from ποιεῖν, to make, to compose, to write, especially in verse; It. & Sp. poema, Fr. poëme.]

1. A metrical composition; a composition in which the verses consist of certain measures, whether in blank verse or in rhyme; as, the poems of Homer or of Milton;—opposed to prose.
2. Hence, rarely, a composition not in verse, in which the language is that of excited imagination; as, the poems of Ossian.