Guide to Literary Terms | Poetic License

Poetic license - a liberty taken by a writer to produce a desired effect by deviating from conventional form, established rule, fact, or logic.

The etymology of “poetic” is discussed above. “License” is from Middle English, where it arrived from the Middle French licence which was derived from the Latin licentia, meaning “to be permitted.”

An example of poetic license is when a poet forces a rhyme in a couplet such as the anonymous:

My father once had a dog
Who fell while sitting on a log.

Other examples of poetic license are the poetic contractions “O’er” and “E’er.”