metromania
Definition
- Noun:
- An obsessive impulse to write poetry: "metromania" refers to a compulsive or excessive desire to compose verse, often to the point of being considered a pathological condition or a mania.
Usage Examples
- (His obsessive urge to write poetry was constant and uncontrollable.)
- (The critic viewed the poet's excessive writing as a mania rather than genuine talent.)
Advanced Usage
- "to suffer from metromania": to be afflicted by an uncontrollable compulsion to write poetry.
- She suffered from metromania, producing dozens of sonnets each week without any regard for quality. (Her poetry-writing was driven by obsession, not artistic discipline.)
Variants and Related Words
- Metromaniac (noun): a person affected by metromania.
- The metromaniac filled entire notebooks with rhyming couplets. (A person obsessed with writing poetry.)
- Metromaniacal (adj): relating to or characteristic of metromania.
- His metromaniacal behaviour exhausted his friends and family. (His obsessive poetry-writing was excessive and tiresome.)
Synonyms
- Poetomania: a synonym for metromania, referring to an excessive passion for poetry.
- Verse-madness: a descriptive term for the same condition.
Related Idioms
- A fever for verse: an idiomatic expression describing an intense, almost feverish desire to write poetry.
- He caught a fever for verse in his youth and never recovered from metromania. (He developed an obsessive love of writing poetry early in life.)
Notes on Usage
- "Metromania" is a rare, technical term derived from Greek ("metron" meaning measure or verse, and "mania" meaning madness). It is primarily used in literary or psychological contexts to describe an extreme, often pathological, devotion to writing poetry. It should not be confused with "pyromania" (obsession with fire) or "kleptomania" (obsession with stealing).