Imatges de pàgina
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a. OF Two SYLLABLES.

| Pyrrhic (~~): as, bŏnŭs.

| Trochee or Choree (~~): as, cārus.

| Iambus (~~): as, bõnōs.
| Spondee ( ̄ ̄): as, cārōs.

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b. OF THREE SYLLABLES.

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Dactyl ~~~): as, dētŭlīt.

Anapest (~~ ̄): as, dóminōs.
Amphibrach (~~~): as, ămicăs.

Tribrach (~~~): as, hominis.

pp | Molossus ( ̄ ̄ ̄): as, fūgērūnt (rare).

Of three syllables, but more than three units of time.

Amphimacer or Cretic (~~ ̄): as, ēgērānt.

|eff | Bacchius (~ ̄ ̄): as, rēgēbānt.

c. OF FOUR SYLLABLES.

1. Choriambus (trochee, iambus): as, dētŭlĕrānt.
2. Greater Ionic (spondee, pyrrhic): as, dējēcĕrăt.
3. Lesser Ionic (pyrrhic, spondee): as, rětŭlissēnt.

4. The first, second, third, or fourth Epitritus has a short syllable in the first, second, third, or fourth place with three long syllables.

5. The first, second, third, or fourth Poon has a long syllable in the first, second, third, or fourth place with three short syllables. 6. The Proceleusmatic consists of four short syllables, as õpĕrIbús.

NOTE.-Narrative poetry was written for rhythmical recitation, or chant; and Lyrical poetry for rhythmical melody, or music, often to be accompanied by measured movements or dance. But in reading, it is not usual, though it is better, to keep the strict measure of time; and often accent is substituted for rhythm, as in English poetry.

d. In general, feet of the same time can be substituted for each other, and two short syllables may stand for a long one. In the latter case, the long syllable is said to be resolved.

Thus the Spondee may take the place of the dactyl or anapæst, the Tribrach of the trochee or iambus; the Proceleusmatic, or a Dactyl standing for an anapæst, is the resolution of a spondee.

When a long syllable having the ictus is resolved, the ictus properly belongs to both the short syllables; but the accent to indicate it is placed on the first: as,

Núnc experiar | sítne aceto | tíbi cor acre in | péctore.

ВАССН. 405.

3. Arsis and Thesis. The accented syllable of each foot is called the Arsis; and the unaccented part the Thesis.

NOTE. The name Arsis meant originally the raising of the foot in beating time ("upward beat"), and Thesis the putting down (“downward beat"); but these terms came, in later use, to signify respectively the raising and depression of the voice. (See Mar. Vict. Chap. ix.)

4. Ictus. Accent, in prosody, is called Ictus,—that is, the beat of the foot, as in a dance or march.

5. Cæsura. The end of a word interrupting a foot is called Cæsura; and when this coincides with a rhetorical break in the sense, it is called the Cæsurà of the verse.

NOTE.-The position of the principal Cæsura is important, as affecting the melody or rhythm. See description of verses below.

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1. Verse. A single line in poetry, or a series of feet set in metrical order, is called a Verse (i.e. a turning back).

To divide the verse, in reading, into its appropriate feet, according to the rules of quantity and versification, is called Scanning or Scansion (i.e. climbing, or advance by steps).

A verse lacking a syllable at the beginning is called Acephalous (headless); lacking a syllable at the end, it is called Catalectic (stopped); complete, Acatalectic. Sometimes a verse appears to have a superfluous syllable, and is then called Hypercatalectic.

The word Verse (versus, a turning) is opposed to Prose (prorsus or pro-versus, straight ahead).

2. Elision. In scanning, a vowel or diphthong at the end of a word (unless an interjection) sometimes even at the end of a verse is dropped, when the next word begins with a vowel or with h. This is called Synalopha (smearing), or Elision (bruising); or, at the end of a verse, Synapheia (binding).

A final m, with the preceding vowel, is dropped in like manner: this is called Ecthlipsis. (Hence a final syllable in m is said to have no quantity of its own; its vowel, in any case, being either elided, or else made long by position.) Thus in the verse: Monstrum horrendum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum. Æn. iii. 658.

NOTE.The practice of Elision is followed in Italian and French poetry, and is sometimes adopted in English, particularly in the older poets: as,

Comus, 538.

T' inveigle and invite th' unwary sense. In early Latin poetry, a syllable ending in s was often elided, even before a consonant: as,

Senio confectu' quiescit. — Ennius (quoted in Cat. M. 5).

3. Hiatus. Elision is sometimes omitted when a word ending in a vowel has a special emphasis, or is succeeded by a pause. This is called Hiatus (gaping).

4. A final syllable, regularly short, is sometimes lengthened before a pause: it is then said to be long by Cæsura. (This usage is comparatively rare, most cases where it appears being caused by the retention of an original long quantity.) Nostrorum obruimūr, oriturque miserrima cædes.— Æn. ii. 411.

5. The last syllable of any verse may be indifferently long or short (except in some forms of Anapastic and Ionic verse).

81. METRE.

1. Metre is the regular combination of feet in verse, and is named from its most frequent and ruling foot: as, Dactylic, Iambic, Trochaic, Anapæstic, Choriambic.

NOTE. — The ruling foot, so called, always consists of a combination of long and short syllables, and is therefore never a pyrrhic or spondee.

The shorter feet (Iambus, Trochee) are counted not by single feet, but by pairs (dipodies), so that six Iambi make a trimeter, &c.

2. A Verse consists of a given number of feet arranged metrically. It is named from the number of feet (or pairs) it contains, as Hexameter, Trimeter.

3. A Stanza, or Strophe, consists of a definite number of verses ranged in a fixed order. It is often called from the name of some poet, as Sapphic, Alcaic, Horatian.

82. FORMS OF VERSE.

1. Dactylic. The most common forms of dactylic verse are the Hexameter and Pentameter.

a. Hexameter. The Hexameter, called also Heroic verse, is used in narrative and pastoral poetry. It consists of six feet, of which the last is always incomplete (a trochee or spondee), the fifth generally a dactyle, and the rest indifferently dactyles or spondees. The fifth foot is rarely a spondee, in which case the verse is called spondaic. The principal Cæsura falls after the arsis (sometimes in the thesis) of the third foot or after the arsis of the fourth. In the last case there should be another in the third. The introductory verses of the Æneid, divided according to the foregoing rules, will be as follows, the principal Cæsura in each verse being marked by double lines:

:

ārmă virumque că|nō || Trōljæ qui | prīmus ǎb | ōris

Ităliļām fātō prŏfù|gūs || Lā|vīniăquĕ | vēnĭt

lītŏră, multum ille | ēt tēr|rīs || jǎc|tātus ět | āltō

vī sŭpěļrūm sæ|væ || měmŏ|rēm Jū|nōnĭs ŏb | īram ;

mūltă quò que ēt bēl|lō pās sūs || dūm | cōndĕrět | ūrbem, infēr rētquě dělōs Lǎtlo, || genus | undě Lăltinum, Albānīque pă|trēs, || āt|que āltæ | moniă | Rōmæ.

Another form of cæsura is seen in the following

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Hoc făci ēns vi|vām měli |ūs || sic | dulcis ǎ | micis.
HOR. SAT. I. 4, 135.

The Hexameter verse has been illustrated in English thus: "Strongly it bears us a long, || in | swelling and | limitless | billows, Nothing before and | nothing behind, || but the | sky and the | ocean."

b. Pentameter. The Pentameter consists of five feet, and is used alternately with the hexameter to form the Elegiac stanza. It must be scanned as two half-verses, of which the latter always has two dactyls, and each ends in a long syllable or half-foot. There is no cæsura; but the first half-verse must always end with a word: as,

cum sŭbĭt | illījūs trīs|tīssĭmă | nōctis Ĭ|māgo

quã mihi | sūprējmūm || tēmpus în | ūrbě fulĭt,
cum rěpětō nōc|tēm qua | tōt mihi | cără rě līqui,
labitur ex oculis || nunc quoque | guttă mělis.
jām propě | lūx ǎděļrāt, quā | mē discēděrě | Cæsăr
finibus extrē mæ || jūssĕrăt | Ausŏniæ.

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"In the hexameter | rises the | fountain's | silvery | column,
In the pentameter | aye || falling in | melody | back."

c. Rarely, other dactylic verses, or half-verses, combined with trochees or iambs, are used by the lyric poets: viz.,·

Dactylic penthemim (five half-feet):

arboribusque co|mæ.— HOR. Od. IV. 7.

Dactylic tetrameter:

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crās in gēns Itě rābĭmus | æquor.—OD. I. 7.

Archilochian heptameter:

solvitur acris hilēmps, grātā vicě | vēris | ēt Fă vōni.

OD. I. 4.

2. Iambic. The most common forms of Iambic verse are the Trimeter (Senarius), and Tetrameter (Septenarius or Octonarius).

a. Trimeter. The Iambic Trimeter is the ordinary verse of dramatic dialogue. It consists of three measures, each containing a double iambus. In the first half-measure (odd places), the Spondee or its equivalents (anapæst or dactyl) may be regularly

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