Couplet

couplet

Two successive lines of verse. A couplet is marked usually by rhythmic correspondence, rhyme, or the inclusion of a self-contained utterance. Couplets may be independent poems, but they usually function as parts of other verse forms, such as the Shakespearean sonnet, which concludes with a couplet. A couplet that cannot stand alone is an open couplet; a couplet whose sense is relatively independent is a closed couplet.

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couplet

two successive lines of verse, usually rhymed and of the same metre

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Couplet 

in a song or poem, a lyric strophe. In a musical couplet, a self-contained melody covers the lines of one strophe of a poem. With repetition through subsequent lines of the text, the melody may remain unchanged or may be slightly varied. In polyphonic songs based on couplets, the secondary voices may be subject to variations in subsequent verses; in songs with accompaniment, the accompaniment may change. Couplets are frequently begun with a lead-in antiphonal and rounded off by a refrain.

The Russian plural form of “couplet,” kuplety, is the name for a ballad of a jovial, humorous, or satirical type with a recurring refrain. It is found in vaudeville and musical comedy and in the 20th century became a genre of variety-stage song. Outstanding Soviet kuplety performers include V. Ia. Khenkin, B. S. Borisov, and L. O. Utesov.