Colloquialism
Quick answer: A colloquialism is an informal, everyday expression used in writing, from anyway to dead tired. Learn how poets use colloquial language without losing craft.
A colloquialism is an informal expression from everyday spoken language used in writing: phrases like anyway, fair enough, dead tired, or I could murder a cup of tea. Colloquial language sits between standard formal English and outright slang, familiar enough for any conversation but traditionally kept out of ceremonial prose. When a poem admits such phrases, it borrows the warmth and credibility of actual talk.
The colloquial has been one of modern poetry's main engines. Robert Frost built metrical poems from the cadences of New England conversation and insisted on the sound of sense, the tune talk makes. Frank O'Hara let the chat of Manhattan lunch hours straight into his lines. A well-placed colloquialism persuades readers a human is speaking, which is why the device thrives in elegy and love poetry, the places where formal language most risks sounding rented.
How It Works
Colloquialism creates intimacy through recognition. An invented example: the consultant explained the scan, and my father, who fixed boilers for forty years, said, well, that's me told. The colloquial phrase lands harder than any formal lament could, because it is exactly what such a man would say, and its smallness against the situation carries the grief. That is the core mechanism: everyday phrasing meeting extraordinary pressure. The gap between the size of the words and the size of the moment does the emotional work, and the reader closes it.
Colloquialism, Slang and Idiom
The three overlap but sort usefully. Slang is the most informal and tribal, marking membership of a group or moment, and it dates fastest. Idiom is any fixed expression whose meaning is not literal, raining cats and dogs, which may be formal or informal. Colloquialism is the broad middle: informal expressions in general conversational currency. A poem can hold colloquial language for decades without ageing, while last year's slang already smells of costume; poets who want talk in their lines usually aim for the durable middle register.
Using the Colloquial in Your Own Poems
Anchor colloquialisms in a voice that would say them; sprinkled into an otherwise formal poem for relatability, they read as pandering. Ration them, since talk-saturated lines can slacken into mere chat, and poetry needs the pressure of selection even when it sounds casual. Frost's trick is worth studying: conversational phrasing laid over strict metre, so ease and discipline pull against each other.
Placed at a poem's emotional peak, a plain spoken phrase often outperforms eloquence, and judges scoring emotion and language tend to remember the poem that dared to say it simply.
What poets can take from this
- Use colloquialisms only in a voice that would plausibly say them; borrowed casualness shows.
- Prefer durable conversational phrases to fresh slang, which dates a poem within years.
- Put your plainest spoken phrase at the point of highest feeling and let the gap do the work.
- Play casual phrasing against formal structure, metre or form, for productive tension.
- Read drafts aloud; a false colloquialism sounds wrong faster than it looks wrong.
Try it yourself
Recall something devastating someone once said to you in completely ordinary words. Build a poem that moves toward that sentence and ends on it, unaltered, letting twelve lines of context turn plain speech into a blade.
Questions
What is the difference between colloquialism and slang?
Colloquialisms are informal expressions in wide conversational use across a language community, and they age slowly. Slang is more informal and more tribal, marking a group or a moment, and it dates quickly. Dead tired is colloquial; whatever this year's word for excellent is will be slang.
Can colloquial language be used in serious poetry?
Yes, and it often carries the most serious moments best. A plain spoken phrase at a poem's emotional peak can outperform formal eloquence, precisely because it sounds like a person rather than a performance.
Is colloquialism the same as vernacular?
They are related but distinct. Colloquialism names individual informal expressions, while vernacular refers to the whole natural language of a people or region as actually spoken. A vernacular poem will contain colloquialisms, but the terms operate at different scales.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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