Couplet. Any two lines which rhyme together may be called a couplet; but the term is more frequently used to denote two lines which contain the complete expression of an idea, and are therefore to a certain extent independent of what goes before or what follows. The poetic wits of the age of Queen Anne excelled in this kind of aphoristic versification. Pope, as has been said, reasons in couplets. For example :
'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
However effectively epigrammatic short aphorisms may be expressed in rhymed couplets, a long poem in this rhythm becomes wearisome to the ear. Not all the alert genius of Pope, nor the sonorous strength of Dryden could avert from their favourite rhythm the damning sin of monotony.