In
Greek and
Latin poetry
The history of Latin poetry can be understood as the adaptation of Greek models. The verse comedies of Plautus, the earliest surviving examples of Latin literature, are estimated to have been composed around 205-184 BC.
History
Scholars conven ...
, a choriamb is a
metron (prosodic foot) consisting of four
syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
s in the pattern long-short-short-long (—
‿ ‿ —), that is, a
trochee alternating with an
iamb. Choriambs are one of the two basic metra that do not occur in spoken verse, as distinguished from true lyric or sung verse. The choriamb is sometimes regarded as the "nucleus" of
Aeolic verse, because the pattern long-short-short-long pattern occurs, but to label this a "choriamb" is potentially misleading.
[Halporn ''et al.'', ''Meters'', pp. 29–31.]
In the prosody of
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and other modern European languages, "choriamb" is sometimes used to describe four-syllable sequence of the pattern stressed-unstressed-unstressed-stressed (again, a trochee followed by an iamb): for example, "over the hill", "under the bridge", and "what a mistake!".
English prosody
In English, the choriamb is often found in the first four syllables of iambic pentameter verses, as here in
Keats' ''
To Autumn
"To Autumn" is a poem by English Romantic poet John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821). The work was composed on 19 September 1819 and published in 1820 in a volume of Keats's poetry that included ''Lamia'' and ''The Eve of St. Agne ...
'':
:Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
:Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
:Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
:Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
:Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
:Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
:Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
:And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
:Steady thy laden head across a brook;
:Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
:Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
See also
*
meter (poetry)
In poetry, metre ( Commonwealth spelling) or meter (American spelling; see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences) is the basic rhythm, rhythmic structure of a verse (poetry), verse or Line (poetry), line ...
*
Aeolic verse
External links
*
References
{{Reflist
Metrical feet