In Medias Res
Quick answer: In medias res means beginning a story in the middle of the action, a technique from Homer onward. Learn how poets use this opening to grip readers fast.
In medias res is the technique of beginning a narrative in the middle of the action, with the situation already underway, rather than starting from the chronological beginning. The Latin phrase means 'into the middle of things' and comes from Horace's Ars Poetica, where he praises Homer for plunging the listener straight into the Trojan story instead of starting from the egg Helen hatched from. Background, when needed at all, arrives later through flashback, dialogue, or inference.
Poets should care because poems have no time to clear their throat. A lyric of twenty lines that spends five on setup has spent a quarter of its life not being a poem yet. Opening mid-scene is the fastest cure for slow beginnings, and slow beginnings are the most common reason contest readers, Writory's included, drift before line six.
How It Works
The mechanism is a trade: you sacrifice orientation to gain momentum. The reader arrives inside an event, mid-argument, mid-journey, mid-crisis, and reads on partly to find out what is happening, using curiosity as fuel. Pronouns without introductions, present tense, and verbs before scenery all sharpen the effect.
An invented opening line shows the difference. Chronological: 'Last June, my brother and I decided to drive to the coast to scatter the ashes.' In medias res: 'Halfway across the bridge, my brother finally unscrews the urn.' The second begins where the pressure is, and everything the first line explained can be inferred or delayed.
Where You Will See It
The Iliad opens in the tenth year of the war, and the Odyssey with Odysseus already lost, both cases Horace had in mind. Milton begins Paradise Lost with Satan already fallen, flames already burning. Dante starts the Divine Comedy in the middle of the road of life, mid-crisis by design. Modern narrative poems and even short lyrics use the move constantly; many of Sharon Olds' family poems open inside the charged moment, trusting readers to assemble the history as they go.
How to Use It in Your Own Poems
Draft the whole story, then look for the line where the temperature rises and promote it to the top. Most poets discover their real first line hiding around line five. Delay backstory until the reader has a reason to want it, and deliver it in fragments, a clause here, an object there, rather than a paragraph of explanation. Check that the poem stays followable: in medias res should create curiosity, not confusion, so anchor the reader quickly with who, where, and a concrete action, even while withholding why.
What poets can take from this
- Find your draft's hottest line and try it as the opening.
- Start with a verb and a body in motion, not with weather or waking up.
- Feed backstory in fragments only after curiosity exists.
- Anchor the reader fast with one concrete who and where.
- Present tense heightens the mid-action effect; use it deliberately.
Try it yourself
Write a narrative poem that opens with a line beginning 'Halfway through', then never explains the beginning of the event directly. Let objects and dialogue imply everything the reader needs.
Questions
What does in medias res literally mean?
It is Latin for 'into the middle of things'. Horace coined the phrase in his Ars Poetica, praising Homer for starting the Trojan story mid-war rather than from its remote beginnings.
Does in medias res work in short lyric poems or only in epics?
It works in both, arguably better in lyrics, where space is scarce. Opening inside the charged moment lets a twenty-line poem spend all twenty lines on pressure instead of setup.
What is the difference between in medias res and a flashback?
In medias res is where you start: mid-action. A flashback is one tool for supplying the past you skipped. They often work together, but a poem can open mid-action and never flash back at all.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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