Paeon (prosody)
In prosody a paeon (or paean) is a metrical foot used in both poetry and prose. It consists of four syllables, with one of the syllables being long and the other three short. Paeons were often used in the traditional Greek hymn to Apollo called paeans. Its use in English poetry is rare. Depending on the position of the long syllable, the four paeons are called a first, second, third, or fourth paeon. The cretic or amphimacer metrical foot, with three syllables, the first and last of which are long and the second short, is sometimes also called a paeon diagyios. Use in prose The paeon (particularly the first and fourth) was favored by ancient prose writers since, unlike the dactyl, spondee, trochee, and iamb, it was not associated with a particular poetic meter, such as the hexameter, tetrameter, or trimeter, and so produced a sound not overly poetical or familiar. Regarding the use of the paeon in prose, Aristotle writes: :All the other meters then are to be disregarded for the r ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Prosody (linguistics)
In linguistics, prosody () is concerned with elements of speech that are not individual phonetic segments (vowels and consonants) but are properties of syllables and larger units of speech, including linguistic functions such as intonation, stress, and rhythm. Such elements are known as suprasegmentals. Prosody may reflect features of the speaker or the utterance: their emotional state; the form of utterance (statement, question, or command); the presence of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and focus. It may reflect elements of language not encoded by grammar or choice of vocabulary. Attributes of prosody In the study of prosodic aspects of speech, it is usual to distinguish between auditory measures ( subjective impressions produced in the mind of the listener) and objective measures (physical properties of the sound wave and physiological characteristics of articulation that may be measured objectively). Auditory (subjective) and objective ( acoustic and articulatory) ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Spondee
A spondee (Latin: ) is a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables, as determined by syllable weight in classical meters, or two stressed syllables in modern meters. The word comes from the Greek , , 'libation'. Spondees in Ancient Greek and Latin Libations Sometimes libations were accompanied by hymns in spondaic rhythm, as in the following hymn by the Greek poet Terpander (7th century BC), which consists of 20 long syllables: "Zeus, Beginning of all things, Leader of all things, Zeus, I make a libation to Thee this beginning of (my) hymns." In hexameter poetry However, in most Greek and Latin poetry, the spondee typically does not provide the basis for a metrical line in poetry. Instead, spondees are found as irregular feet in meter based on another type of foot. For example, the epics of Homer and Virgil are written in dactylic hexameter. This term suggests a line of six dactyls, but a spondee can be substituted in most positions. The first line of Virgil's ''Ae ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Trimeter
In poetry, a trimeter (Greek for "three measure") is a metre of three metrical feet per line. Examples: : When here // the spring // we see, : Fresh green // upon // the tree. See also * Anapaest * Dactyl * Tristich * Triadic-line poetry Triadic-line poetry or stepped line is a long line which "unfolds into three descending and indented parts". Created by William Carlos Williams, it was his "solution to the problem of modern verse" and later was also taken up by poets Charles Tomlin ... References Types of verses {{Poetry-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tetrameter
In poetry, a tetrameter is a line of four metrical feet. The particular foot can vary, as follows: * ''Anapestic tetrameter:'' ** "And the ''sheen'' of their ''spears'' was like ''stars'' on the ''sea''" (Lord Byron, "The Destruction of Sennacherib") ** "Twas the ''night'' before ''Christ''mas when ''all'' through the ''house''" ("A Visit from St. Nicholas") * ''Iambic tetrameter:'' ** "Be''cause'' I ''could'' not ''stop'' for ''Death''" (Emily Dickinson, eponymous lyric) * ''Trochaic tetrameter:'' ** "''Pet''er, ''Pet''er, ''pump''kin-''eat''er" ( English nursery rhyme) * ''Dactylic tetrameter:'' ** ''Pic''ture your ''self'' in a ''boat'' on a ''riv''er with ..(The Beatles, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds") * ''Spondaic tetrameter:'' ** ''Long sounds move slow'' * ''Pyrrhic tetrameter'' (with spondees white breast" and "dim sea": ** And the ''white breast'' of the ''dim sea'' * '' Amphibracic tetrameter:'' ** And, ''speak''ing of ''birds'', there's the ''Russ''ian Pa''loo''ski, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hexameter
Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek and Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of syllables). It was the standard epic metre in classical Greek and Latin literature, such as in the ''Iliad'', ''Odyssey'' and ''Aeneid''. Its use in other genres of composition include Horace's satires, Ovid's ''Metamorphoses,'' and the Hymns of Orpheus. According to Greek mythology, hexameter was invented by Phemonoe, daughter of Apollo and the first Pythia of Delphi.Pliny the Elder, 7.57 __TOC__ Classical Hexameter In classical hexameter, the six feet follow these rules: * A foot can be made up of two long syllables (– –), a spondee; or a long and two short syllables, a dactyl (– υ υ). * The first four feet can contain either one of them. * The fifth is almost always a dactyl, and last must be a spondee. A short syllable (υ) is a syllabl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Poetic Meter
In poetry, metre ( Commonwealth spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study and the actual use of metres and forms of versification are both known as prosody. (Within linguistics, " prosody" is used in a more general sense that includes not only poetic metre but also the rhythmic aspects of prose, whether formal or informal, that vary from language to language, and sometimes between poetic traditions.) Characteristics An assortment of features can be identified when classifying poetry and its metre. Qualitative versus quantitative metre The metre of most poetry of the Western world and elsewhere is based on patterns of syllables of particular types. The familiar type of metre in English-language poetry is called qualitative metre, with stressed syllables coming ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Iamb (foot)
An iamb () or iambus is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. Originally the term referred to one of the feet of the quantitative meter of classical Greek prosody: a short syllable followed by a long syllable (as in () "beautiful (f.)"). This terminology was adopted in the description of accentual-syllabic verse in English, where it refers to a foot comprising an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (as in ''abóve''). Thus a Latin word like , because of its short-long rhythm, is considered by Latin scholars to be an iamb, but because it has a stress on the first syllable, in modern linguistics it is considered to be a trochee. Etymology R. S. P. Beekes has suggested that the grc, ἴαμβος ''iambos'' has a Pre-Greek origin. An old hypothesis is that the word is borrowed from Phrygian or Pelasgian, and literally means "Einschritt", i. e., "one-step", compare ''dithyramb'' and ''thriambus'', but H. S. Versnel rejects this etymology and sugg ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Trochee
In English poetic metre and modern linguistics, a trochee () is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. But in Latin and Ancient Greek poetic metre, a trochee is a heavy syllable followed by a light one (also described as a long syllable followed by a short one). In this respect, a trochee is the reverse of an iamb. Thus the Latin word "there", because of its short-long rhythm, in Latin metrical studies is considered to be an iamb, but since it is stressed on the first syllable, in modern linguistics it is considered to be a trochee. The adjective form is ''trochaic''. The English word ''trochee'' is itself trochaic since it is composed of the stressed syllable followed by the unstressed syllable . Another name formerly used for a trochee was a choree (), or choreus. Etymology ''Trochee'' comes from French , adapted from Latin , originally from the Greek (), 'wheel', from the phrase (), literally 'running foot'; it is connected with ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Metrical Foot
The foot is the basic repeating metre (poetry), rhythmic unit that forms part of a line of poetry, verse in most Indo-European languages, Indo-European traditions of poetry, including English accentual-syllabic verse and the quantitative meter of classics, classical ancient Greek poetry, ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The unit is composed of syllables, and is usually two, three, or four syllables in length. The most common feet in English are the Iamb (foot), iamb, trochee, dactyl (poetry), dactyl, and anapest. The foot might be compared to a Bar (music), bar, or a beat (music), beat divided into pulse groups, in musical notation. The English word "foot" is a translation of the Latin term ''pes'', plural ''pedes'', which in turn is a translation of the Ancient Greek ποῦς, pl. πόδες. The Ancient Greek prosodists, who invented this terminology, specified that a foot must have both an arsis and thesis, arsis and a thesis, that is, a place where the foot was raised ("arsis") ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Quintilian
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintilian (), although the alternate spellings of Quintillian and Quinctilian are occasionally seen, the latter in older texts. Life Quintilian was born c. 35 AD in ''Calagurris'' (Calahorra, La Rioja) in Hispania. His father, a well-educated man, sent him to Rome to study rhetoric early in the reign of Nero. While there, he cultivated a relationship with Domitius Afer, who died in 59. "It had always been the custom … for young men with ambitions in public life to fix upon some older model of their ambition … and regard him as a mentor". Quintilian evidently adopted Afer as his model and listened to him speak and plead cases in the law courts. Afer has been characterized as a more austere, classical, Ciceronian speaker than those common at the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |