Envoi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Envoi (disambiguation).
Envoi or envoy in poetry is used to describe:
- A short stanza at the end of a poem such as a ballad, used either to address an imagined or actual person or to comment on the preceding body of the poem.[1][2]
- A dedicatory poem about sending the book out to readers, a postscript.[3]
- Any poem of farewell, including a farewell to life.
The word envoy or l'envoy comes from the Old French, where it means '[the] sending forth'.[3] Originally it was a stanza at the end of a longer poem, which included a dedication to a patron or individual, similar to a tornada. More recent examples are dedicatory poems as part of a collection, or an individual poem about farewell or moving on. Envoi is both a type of poem, and is often used as a title.