A vignette is a brief poetic sketch that captures a single moment, mood, place, or character impression with selective detail. It usually suggests rather than fully explains, leaving the reader with a clear feeling or image instead of a complete narrative.
Because it is a style of writing rather than a fixed form, a vignette can appear in many kinds of poems and may focus on atmosphere, gesture, or a telling detail.
Example
Dusk in the laundromat:
blue shirts turning slow
in the glass drums,
a child asleep
with a sock in each hand,
while rain taps the window
like someone trying to enter.
SHOWDOWN
The hand
ticks toward noon,
main street quiets,
a voice call out -
make my day
Brian Strand
[n] a small illustrative sketch (as sometimes placed at the beginning of chapters in books)
[n] a photograph whose edges shade off gradually
[n] a brief literary description