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Catalectic
A catalectic line is a metrically incomplete line of verse, lacking a syllable at the end or ending with an incomplete foot. One form of catalexis is headlessness, where the unstressed syllable is dropped from the beginning of the line. A line missing two syllables is called brachycatalectic. In English Poems can be written entirely in catalectic lines, or entirely in acatalectic (complete) lines, or a mixture, as the following carol, composed by Cecil Frances Alexander in 1848: :Once in Royal David's city (8 syllables) : Stood a lowly cattle shed, (7 syllables) :Where a mother laid her Baby (8 syllables) : In a manger for His bed: (7 syllables) :Mary was that mother mild, (7 syllables) :Jesus Christ her little Child. (7 syllables) It has been argued that across a number of Indo-European languages, when the two types of line are mixed in this way, the shorter line tends to be used as a coda at the end of a period or stanza. Blunt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acatalectic
An acatalectic line of verse is one having the Metre (poetry), metrically complete number of syllables in the final Foot (prosody), foot. When talking about poetry written in English the term is arguably of limited significance or utility, at least by comparison to its antonym, catalectic, for the simple reason that acatalexis is considered to be the "usual case" in the large majority of metrical contexts and therefore explicit reference to it proves almost universally superfluous. For example, to describe Shakespeare's sonnets as having been written in ''iambic pentameter acatalectic'' would be factually accurate, but redundant and never said, because iambic pentameter is presumed to be acatalectic unless specified as being catalectic. However, in very rare contexts where catalexis might be considered probable (e.g., in English trochaic tetrameter, or in differentiating acatalectic verses from surrounding catalectic ones), explicit expression of the verse's metrical completeness ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trochaic Septenarius
In ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek and Latin literature, the trochaic septenarius or trochaic tetrameter catalectic is one of two major forms of poetic metre based on the trochee as its dominant rhythmic unit, the other being much rarer trochaic octonarius. It is used in drama and less often in poetry. Together with the Iambic trimeter#Latin iambic senarius, iambic senarius, it is one of the two most commonly used metres of Latin comedy. It has a long history dating back to the 7th century BC. The term septenarius is mostly used for the form of the metre which is used in Roman drama, especially the comedies of Plautus and Terence. This consists of a line of fifteen elements, usually divided into two hemistichs of 8 and 7 elements. Any element except the last two could be resolution (meter), resolved, i.e. divided into two short syllables. The basic pattern of the line was as follows: , – x – x , – x – x , , – x – x , – u – , Here – stands for a long ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metres Of Roman Comedy
Roman comedy is mainly represented by two playwrights, Plautus (writing between c.205 and 184 BC) and Terence (writing c.166-160 BC). The works of other Latin playwrights such as Livius Andronicus, Naevius, Ennius, and Caecilius Statius are now lost except for a few lines quoted in other authors. 20 plays of Plautus survive complete, and 6 of Terence. Various metres are used in the plays. As far as is known, iambic senarii were spoken without music; trochaic septenarii (and also iambic septenarii and trochaic and iambic octonarii)Fortson (2008), p. 22. were chanted or recited (or possibly sung) to the sound of a pair of pipes known as (the equivalent of the Greek aulos), played by a ("piper"); and other metres were sung, possibly in an operatic style, to the same . In Plautus about 37% of lines are unaccompanied iambic senarii,A.S. Gratwick (1982), in ''The Cambridge History of Classical Literature'', vol. 2 part 1, pages 85-86. but in Terence more than half of the verses are sen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tawil
''Ṭawīl'' ( ar, طويل, literally 'long'), or ''al-Ṭawīl'' (), is a meter used in classical Arabic poetry Arabic poetry ( ar, الشعر العربي ''ash-shi‘ru al-‘Arabīyyu'') is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, but oral poetry is believed to predate that. Arabic poetry .... It comprises distichs (''bayt'') of two 'lines'—in Arabic usually written side by side, with a space dividing them, the first being called the ''sadr'' (صدر, literally "chest") and the other the ''ʿajuz'' (عجز, literally "belly"). Its basic form is as follows (the symbol ''–'' representing a long syllable, ''⏑'' representing a short syllable, and ''x'' representing a syllable that can be short or long): : , ⏑ – x , ⏑ – – – , ⏑ – x , ⏑ – ⏑ – , (2×) This form can be exemplified through the traditional mnemonic ' (). The final syllable of every distich rhymes througho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metre (poetry)
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 comin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mandākrāntā Metre
(Sanskrit: ) is the name of a metre commonly used in classical Sanskrit poetry. The name in Sanskrit means "slow-stepping" or "slowly advancing". It is said to have been invented by India's most famous poet Kālidāsa, (5th century CE), who used it in his well-known poem ("the Cloud-Messenger"). The metre characterises the longing of lovers who are separated from each other, expressed in the Sanskrit word "separation (of lovers), parting". Metrical pattern Modern analysis A line in has 17 syllables, divided into three sections, each separated by a pause. The first section consists of four long syllables, the second of 5 short syllables and one long, and the third a mixture of long and short alternating, in this pattern: :, – – – – , u u u u u – , – u – – u – x , As with other Sanskrit metres, the length of the final syllable is indifferent. Deo (2007) argues that the metre is basically trochaic (i.e. consisting of a "strong-weak, strong-weak" rhythm). Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anceps
In languages with quantitative poetic metres, such as Ancient Greek, Latin, Arabic, Sanskrit, and classical Persian, an anceps (plural ''ancipitia'' or ''(syllabae) ancipites'') is a position in a metrical pattern which can be filled by either a long or a short syllable. In general, ''anceps'' syllables in words, such as the first syllable of the Greek words (the Greek god of war) or "bitter", which can be treated by poets as either long or short, can be distinguished from ''anceps'' elements or positions in a metrical pattern, which are positions where either a long syllable or a short syllable can be used. Another distinction can be made between the ordinary ''anceps'' positions at the beginning or middle of a line of verse and the phenomenon of ''brevis in longo'', which is when a short syllable at the end of a line counts as long because of the pause which follows. The word ''anceps'' comes from the Latin ''anceps, ancipitis'', meaning "two-headed, uncertain, unfixed". The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Headless 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age. Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism, the language of classical Hindu philosophy, and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism. It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in the early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture, and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies. Sanskrit generally connotes several Old Indo-Aryan language varieties. The most archaic of these is the Vedic Sanskrit found in the Rig Veda, a colle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menander
Menander (; grc-gre, Μένανδρος ''Menandros''; c. 342/41 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek dramatist and the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy. He wrote 108 comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times. His record at the City Dionysia is unknown. He was one of the most popular writers in antiquity, but his work was lost during the Middle Ages and is now known in highly fragmentary form, much of which was discovered in the 20th century. Only one play, ''Dyskolos'', has survived almost complete. Life and work Menander was the son of well-to-do parents; his father Diopeithes is identified by some with the Athenian general and governor of the Thracian Chersonese known from the speech of Demosthenes ''De Chersoneso''. He presumably derived his taste for comic drama from his uncle Alexis. He was the friend, associate, and perhaps pupil of Theophrastus, and was on intimate terms with the Athenian dictator Demetrius of Phalerum. He also enjoyed th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
