Po"em (?), n. [L. poëma, Gr.
?, fr. ? to make, to compose, to write, especially in verse: cf.
F. poëme.] 1. A metrical composition;
a composition in verse written in certain measures, whether in blank
verse or in rhyme, and characterized by imagination and poetic
diction; -- contradistinguished from prose; as, the
poems of Homer or of Milton.
2. A composition, not in verse, of which the
language is highly imaginative or impassioned; as, a prose
poem; the poems of Ossian.