Aeolic Verse
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Aeolic Verse
Aeolic verse is a classification of Ancient Greek lyric poetry referring to the distinct verse forms characteristic of the two great poets of Archaic Lesbos, Sappho and Alcaeus, who composed in their native Aeolic dialect. These verse forms were taken up and developed by later Greek and Roman poets and some modern European poets. General description Essential features and origin Sappho and Alcaeus' verses differ from most other Greek lyric poetry in their metrical construction: * Verses consist of a fixed number of syllables (thus, for example, no resolution, contraction, or biceps elements). * Consecutive anceps syllables may occur, especially at the beginning of the verse (where two initial anceps syllables are called the aeolic base). (This forms an exception to the principle, otherwise observed in Greek verse, that two successive unmarked elements are not permitted. Lines beginning with multiple anceps syllables are also exceptional in not being classifiable as having r ...
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Greek Lyric
Greek lyric is the body of lyric poetry written in dialects of Ancient Greek. It is primarily associated with the early 7th to the early 5th centuries BC, sometimes called the "Lyric Age of Greece", but continued to be written into the Hellenistic and Imperial periods. Background Lyric is one of three broad categories of poetry in classical antiquity, along with drama and epic, according to the scheme of the "natural forms of poetry" developed by Goethe in the early nineteenth century. (Drama is considered a form of poetry here because both tragedy and comedy were written in verse in ancient Greece.) Culturally, Greek lyric is the product of the political, social and intellectual milieu of the Greek ''polis'' ("city-state"). Much of Greek lyric is occasional poetry, composed for public or private performance by a soloist or chorus to mark particular occasions. The symposium ("drinking party") was one setting in which lyric poems were performed.Miller, ''Greek Lyric: An Antholog ...
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Cretic
A cretic (; also Cretic, amphimacer and sometimes paeon diagyios)Squire, pp. 142, 384. is a metrical foot containing three syllables: long, short, long (  ). In Greek poetry, the cretic was usually a form of paeonic or aeolic verse. However, any line mixing iambs and trochees could employ a cretic foot as a transition. In other words, a poetic line might have two iambs and two trochees, with a cretic foot in between. Words which include a cretic (e.g. Latin '' cīvitās'' and its various inflections) cannot be used in works composed in dactylic hexameter or dactylic pentameter. In Latin, cretics were used for composition both in comedy and tragedy. They are fairly frequent in Plautus but rarer in Terence. (See Metres of Roman comedy.) For Romance language poetry, the cretic has been a common form in folk poetry, whether in proverbs or tags. Additionally, some English poets have responded to the naturally iambic nature of English and the need for a trochaic initi ...
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Choliamb
Choliambic verse ( grc, χωλίαμβος), also known as limping iambs or scazons or halting iambic,. is a form of meter in poetry. It is found in both Greek and Latin poetry in the classical period. Choliambic verse is sometimes called ''scazon'', or "lame iambic", because it brings the reader down on the wrong "foot" by reversing the stresses of the last few beats. It was originally pioneered by the Greek lyric poet Hipponax, who wrote "lame trochaics" as well as "lame iambics". The basic structure is much like iambic trimeter, except that the last cretic is made heavy by the insertion of a longum instead of a breve. Also, the third anceps of the iambic trimeter line must be short in limping iambs. In other words, the line scans as follows (where — is a long syllable, u is a short syllable, and x is an anceps): :x — u — , x — u — , u — — — As in all classical verse forms, the phenomenon of brevis in longo is observed, so the last syllable can actually be ...
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Hipponactean
Aeolic verse is a classification of Ancient Greek lyric poetry referring to the distinct verse forms characteristic of the two great poets of Archaic Lesbos, Sappho and Alcaeus, who composed in their native Aeolic dialect. These verse forms were taken up and developed by later Greek and Roman poets and some modern European poets. General description Essential features and origin Sappho and Alcaeus' verses differ from most other Greek lyric poetry in their metrical construction: * Verses consist of a fixed number of syllables (thus, for example, no resolution, contraction, or biceps elements). * Consecutive anceps syllables may occur, especially at the beginning of the verse (where two initial anceps syllables are called the aeolic base). (This forms an exception to the principle, otherwise observed in Greek verse, that two successive unmarked elements are not permitted. Lines beginning with multiple anceps syllables are also exceptional in not being classifiable as having r ...
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Acephalous Line
An acephalous or headless line is a variety of catalectic line in a poem which does not conform to its accepted metre, due to the first syllable's omission. Acephalous lines are usually deliberate variations in scansion, but this is not always obvious. It is a technique employed often in the concluding lines of hymn texts, and has been employed in poetry to change tone or announce a conclusion, including its use in Joyce Kilmer's "Trees" and A. E. Housman's "To An Athlete Dying Young." Robert Wallace argues in his essay "Meter in English" that the term ''acephalous line'' seems "pejorative", as if criticising the poet's violation of scansion, but this view is not widely held among critics. Acephalous lines are common in anapestic metre, especially in limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a populati ...
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Hephaestion (grammarian)
Hephaestion ( grc-gre, Ἡφαιστίων ''Hēphaistíōn''; fl. 2nd century AD) was a grammarian of Alexandria who flourished in the age of the Antonines. He was the author of a manual (abridged from a larger work in 48 books) of Greek metres, which is most valuable as the only complete treatise on the subject that has been preserved. The concluding chapter discusses the various kinds of poetical composition. It is written in a clear and simple style, and was much used as a school-book. Works * ''Enchiridion de Metris'' (Ἐγχειρίδιον περὶ μέτρων) * ''On Confusions in Poems'' (Περὶ τῶν ἐν ποιήμασι ταραχῶν) * ''Poemata'' (Περί ποιήματος) * ''Solutions in Tragedy'' (Τραγικῶν λύσεων) * ''Solutions to Difficulties in Comedy'' (Κωμικῶν ἀπορημάτων λύσεις) Editions * Thomas Foster Barham: ''The Enkheiridion of Hehfaistiown concerning Metres and Poems. Translated into English, and i ...
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Sapphic Hendecasyllable
In poetry, a hendecasyllable (sometimes hendecasyllabic) is a line of eleven syllables. The term may refer to several different poetic meters, the older of which are quantitative and used chiefly in classical (Ancient Greek and Latin) poetry, and the newer of which are syllabic or accentual-syllabic and used in medieval and modern poetry. Classical In classical poetry, "hendecasyllable" or "hendecasyllabic" may refer to any of three distinct 11-syllable Aeolic meters, used first in Ancient Greece and later, with little modification, by Roman poets. Aeolic meters are characterized by an Aeolic base × × followed by a choriamb – u u –; where –=a long syllable, u=a short syllable, and ×=an anceps, that is, a syllable either long or short. The three Aeolic hendecasyllables (with base and choriamb in bold) are: Phalaecian ( la, hendecasyllabus phalaecius): × × – u u – u – u – – This is a line used only occasionally in Greek choral odes and scolia, but a favori ...
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Alcaic Stanza
The Alcaic stanza is a Greek lyrical meter, an Aeolic verse form traditionally believed to have been invented by Alcaeus, a lyric poet from Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, about 600 BC. The Alcaic stanza and the Sapphic stanza named for Alcaeus' contemporary, Sappho, are two important forms of Classical poetry. The Alcaic stanza consists of two Alcaic hendecasyllables, followed by an Alcaic enneasyllable and an Alcaic decasyllable. In Sappho's and Alcaeus' poetry The Alcaic stanza as used by Sappho and Alcaeus has the scheme ( where "–" is a longum, "u" a breve, and "×" an anceps): × – u – × – u u – u – , , (alc11) × – u – × – u u – u – , , (alc11) × – u – × – u – – , , (alc9 ) – u u – u u – u – – , , , (alc10) In Latin poetry One stanza consists of four lines; the first two lines are divided into two parts by a caesura after the fifth syllable. The metrical pattern of an Alcaic stanza would look like this: – ...
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Brevis In Longo
In Greek and Latin metre, ''brevis in longo'' (; ) is a short syllable at the end of a line that is counted as long. The term is short for , meaning "a short yllablein place of a long lement" Although the phenomenon itself has been known since ancient times, the phrase is saidcf. West, M. L."Three Topics in Greek Metre" ''The Classical Quarterly'', Vol. 32, No. 2 (1982), pp. 281-297; p. 288. to have been invented by the classical scholar Paul Maas. ''Brevis in longo'' is possible in various classical metres that require a long syllable at the end of a line, including dactylic hexameters and iambic trimeters. It can also be found in the centre of a line in some metres, before a dieresis (e.g. in the iambic octonarius). However, it does not seem to be found in every metre. For example, in Greek, in ionic metres ending in u u – –, there do not seem to be any examples. A similar phenomenon is found in other languages whose poetic metres are quantitative, such as Arabic, Persi ...
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Glyconic
Glyconic (from Glycon, a Greek lyric poet) is a form of meter in classical Greek and Latin poetry. The glyconic line is the most basic form of Aeolic verse, and it is often combined with others. The basic shape (often abbreviated as gl) is as follows: x x – u u – u – Here "x" indicates an anceps, "–" a longum, and "u" a brevis. "x x" is known as the Aeolic base, which can be a spondeus "– –", a trochee "– u", or an iamb "u –". The middle foot "– u u –" is a ''choriambus'', as a so-called choriambic nucleus is a defining element of Aeolic verse. As in all classical verse forms, the phenomenon of brevis in longo is observed, so although the last syllable can actually be short or long, it always "counts" as long. The acephalous ("headless") version (^gl), also known as the ''telesillean'' (Latin: ''telesilleus''), is: x – u u – u – Runs of glyconic lines are often ended by a pherecratean (a glyconic without the last brevis: x x – u u – ...
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Asclepiad (poetry)
An Asclepiad (Latin: ''Asclepiadeus'') is a line of poetry following a particular metrical pattern. The form is attributed to Asclepiades of Samos and is one of the Aeolic metres. As with other Aeolic metrical lines, the asclepiad is built around a choriamb. The Asclepiad may be described as a glyconic that has been expanded with one (Lesser Asclepiad) or two (Greater Asclepiad) further choriambs. The pattern (using "-" for a long syllable, "u" for a short and "x" for an "anceps" or free syllable, which can be either - or u) is: x x - u u - - u u - u - (Lesser Asclepiad / ''Asclepiadeus minor'') x x - u u - - u u - - u u - u - (Greater Asclepiad / ''Asclepiadeus maior'') West (1982) designates the Asclepiad as a "choriambically expanded glyconic" with the notation ''glc'' (lesser) or ''gl2c'' (greater). Asclepiads were used in Latin by Horace in thirty-four of his odes, as well as by Catullus in Poem 30, and Seneca in six tragedies. Examples in English verse include p ...
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Dactyl (poetry)
A dactyl (; el, δάκτυλος, ''dáktylos'', “finger”) is a foot in poetic meter. In quantitative verse, often used in Greek or Latin, a dactyl is a long syllable followed by two short syllables, as determined by syllable weight. The best-known use of dactylic verse is in the epics attributed to the Greek poet Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. In accentual verse, often used in English, a dactyl is a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables—the opposite is the anapaest (two unstressed followed by a stressed syllable). An example of dactylic meter is the first line of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem ''Evangeline'' (1847), which is in dactylic hexameter: :''This is the / forest prim- / eval. The / murmuring / pines and the / hemlocks, The first five feet of the line are dactyls; the sixth a trochee. Stephen Fry quotes Robert Browning's poem " The Lost Leader" as an example of the use of dactylic metre to great effect, creating verse with "great rhy ...
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