a balance maintained in an artistic work (such as a poem, painting, or musical composition) between opposing forces or elements; a controlled dramatic or dynamic quality.

In literature the term has been variously used and defined. The poet and critic Allen Tate (Tate, Allen) used it to refer to the elements that are necessary for a work to be considered whole or complete. This sense of tension was derived by Tate from two terms used in logic—extension (literal meaning) and intension (metaphorical meaning)—from which he dropped the prefixes, and it refers to a mutually dependent relationship between these different forms of meaning. Though the existence of both kinds of meaning creates a conflict, they are both necessary because it is this conflict or tension that gives poetry its meaning.