| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Wit in poetry is characteristic of Metaphysical poetry as a style, and was prevalent in the time of Shakespeare. It may combine word play with conceptual thinking, as a kind of verbal display requiring attention, without intending to be laugh-aloud funny; in fact wit can be a thin disguise for more poignant feelings that are being versified.
More generally, one's wits are one's intellectual powers of all types. Native wit — meaning the wits with which one is born — is closely synonymous with common senseFor the American independence advocacy pamphlet by Thomas Paine, see Common Sense. The term common sense (or as an adjective, commonsense describes beliefs or propositions that seem, to most people, to be prudent and of sound judgment, without dependence. To live by one's wits is to be an opportunist , not always of the scrupulous kind. To have one's wits about one is to be alert and capable of quick reasoningReasoning is the act of using reason to derive a conclusion from certain premises. There are two main methods to reach a conclusion. One is deductive, in which given true premises, the conclusion must follow (the conclusion cannot be false). This sort of.