diff --git a/app/src/main/java/com/ganjoor/android/ui/PoemScreen.kt b/app/src/main/java/com/ganjoor/android/ui/PoemScreen.kt
index 11a3d47..82a1ba2 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/com/ganjoor/android/ui/PoemScreen.kt
+++ b/app/src/main/java/com/ganjoor/android/ui/PoemScreen.kt
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ import androidx.compose.animation.fadeIn
 import androidx.compose.animation.fadeOut
 import androidx.compose.animation.shrinkHorizontally
 import androidx.compose.foundation.clickable
+import androidx.compose.ui.draw.clip
+import androidx.compose.ui.graphics.Color
+import androidx.compose.foundation.shape.RoundedCornerShape
+import androidx.compose.foundation.background
 import androidx.compose.foundation.gestures.detectTapGestures
 import androidx.compose.foundation.layout.Arrangement
 import androidx.compose.foundation.layout.Box
@@ -251,6 +255,9 @@ fun PoemScreen(
     }
 }
 
+/** The positions that make a line of verse; anything else (Single, Paragraph, Comment) is prose. */
+private val VERSE_POSITIONS = setOf(Verse.RIGHT, Verse.LEFT, Verse.CENTERED_1, Verse.CENTERED_2)
+
 /** A word someone tapped: what to look up, the couplet it came from, and where it sits in its verse. */
 private data class WordTap(val word: String, val passage: Bookmark, val verse: Int, val range: IntRange)
 
@@ -379,7 +386,26 @@ private fun Couplet(
     val oneLine = sideBySide && couplet.size == 2 &&
         couplet[0].position == Verse.RIGHT && couplet[1].position == Verse.LEFT
 
-    Column(modifier = Modifier.fillMaxWidth().padding(vertical = 6.dp)) {
+    // Each line of verse sits in its own soft card, so the eye finds where one couplet ends and
+    // the next begins, and the couplet's actions visibly belong to it. Prose (Golestan,
+    // Nowruznameh) stays bare: a paragraph in a box reads as a quotation, not as the text.
+    val isVerse = couplet.all { it.position in VERSE_POSITIONS }
+    val colors = MaterialTheme.colorScheme
+    // A step lighter than the page. On OLED black the usual step is all but black itself, so
+    // the card takes the next one up: still dim, but there.
+    val cardColor =
+        if (colors.surface == Color.Black) colors.surfaceContainerHighest else colors.surfaceContainerHigh
+    val card = if (isVerse) {
+        Modifier
+            .padding(vertical = 4.dp)
+            .clip(RoundedCornerShape(12.dp))
+            .background(cardColor)
+            .padding(horizontal = 12.dp, vertical = 8.dp)
+    } else {
+        Modifier.padding(vertical = 6.dp)
+    }
+
+    Column(modifier = Modifier.fillMaxWidth().then(card)) {
         if (oneLine) {
             Row(modifier = Modifier.fillMaxWidth()) {
                 couplet.forEachIndexed { index, verse ->
diff --git a/design/components/ColumnBrowser/README.md b/design/components/ColumnBrowser/README.md
index 5a7c830..3498562 100644
--- a/design/components/ColumnBrowser/README.md
+++ b/design/components/ColumnBrowser/README.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # ColumnBrowser
 
-The layout for tablets and unfolded foldables. A narrow column of poets sits on the right. Beside it is a column for each level of the open book (books › chapters › poems), and the open page fills the rest of the screen on the left. Phones keep today's navigation. Built in `app/src/main/java/com/ganjoor/android/ui/ColumnBrowser.kt`; wireframes are in `design/wireframes/` (1–8).
+The layout for tablets and unfolded foldables. A narrow column of poets sits on the right. Beside it is a column for each level of the open book (books › chapters › poems), and the open page fills the rest of the screen on the left. Phones keep today's navigation. Built in `app/src/main/java/com/ganjoor/android/ui/ColumnBrowser.kt`; wireframes are in `design/wireframes/` (1–9).
 
 ## Window sizes
 
diff --git a/design/components/Couplet/README.md b/design/components/Couplet/README.md
index bc584d3..821963b 100644
--- a/design/components/Couplet/README.md
+++ b/design/components/Couplet/README.md
@@ -4,7 +4,9 @@ One line of poetry: two hemistichs stacked on a phone, the first pushed to the s
 
 - **Consumer provides:** the couplet's verses (each with its position), the reading style from settings (`poem-naskh` or `poem-nastaliq` at the reader's size and weight), and handlers for a tapped word and for the actions.
 - Alignment by verse position: first hemistich `start`, second `end`, centred verses `center`, prose (single/paragraph/comment) `justify` so Golestan and Nowruznameh fill the column.
-- `space-6` above and below each couplet. Text is `on-surface`.
+- Every line of verse sits in its own **card**: `surface-container-high` (`surface-container-highest` on OLED black, where the usual step is all but black), `radius-md` (12dp) corners, 12dp/8dp inner padding and 4dp above and below. The card holds the couplet's options chevron, its actions and its summary, so they visibly belong to it. Text is `on-surface`, at least 6:1 on the card in every theme.
+- Prose (Single, Paragraph or Comment positions: Golestan, Nowruznameh) has no card; it keeps `space-6` above and below. A paragraph in a box would read as a quotation.
+- The cards are the same on phones, tablets and foldables (wireframes 4–9).
 - Tapping a word opens the dictionary sheet; tapping between words, or the 32px chevron (`touch-compact`, 20px icon, `on-surface-variant`), opens the couplet's actions: **Save this passage**, **Copy**, **Share** as TextButtons. Save keeps the link back to the poem; Copy doesn't.
 - Long-press belongs to text selection — never bind actions to it here.
 - With summaries on, Ganjoor's couplet summary sits underneath in `body-small` / `on-surface-variant`.
diff --git a/design/components/bundle.css b/design/components/bundle.css
index 688dd83..90c1124 100644
--- a/design/components/bundle.css
+++ b/design/components/bundle.css
@@ -28,7 +28,8 @@
 .gj-metre { font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; letter-spacing: .4px; color: var(--on-surface-variant); }
 
 /* Couplet: two hemistichs stacked; first to the start, second to the end. */
-.gj-couplet { padding: var(--space-6) 0; }
+.gj-couplet { margin: var(--space-4) 0; padding: var(--space-8) var(--space-12); border-radius: var(--radius-md); background: var(--surface-container-high); }
+.gj-couplet.is-prose { margin: 0; padding: var(--space-6) 0; background: none; }
 .gj-verse { font-family: var(--font-naskh); font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.8; color: var(--on-surface); margin: 0; }
 .gj-couplet.is-nastaliq .gj-verse { font-family: var(--font-nastaliq); line-height: 2.4; }
 .gj-verse.is-first { text-align: start; }
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diff --git a/design/wireframes/6-dictionary.png b/design/wireframes/6-dictionary.png
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diff --git a/design/wireframes/7-foldable.png b/design/wireframes/7-foldable.png
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diff --git a/design/wireframes/8-settings.png b/design/wireframes/8-settings.png
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diff --git a/design/wireframes/9-phone-couplets.png b/design/wireframes/9-phone-couplets.png
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