Retrograde verse is "poetry that is metrically and syntactically viable when read both forwards and backwards, word by word".
[Leslie Lockett (2016), "Oswald's ''versus retrogradi'': A Forerunner of Post-Conquest Trends in Hexameter Composition", in Rebecca Stephenson and Emily V. Thornbury (eds.), ''Latinity and Identity in Anglo-Saxon Literature'' (University of Toronto Press), p. 158.]
It is a difficult verse form. There are examples of retrograde verse in
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
from the classical, late antique and medieval periods.
[Leslie Lockett (2003), "The Composition and Transmission of a Fifteenth-Century Latin Retrograde Sequence Text from Deventer", ''Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis'' 53(1), p. 118 and n. 67. ] Medieval examples include:
*''Centum concito'' by
Oswald the Younger[
*''Terrigene bene nunc laudent'' by Oswald the Younger][
*Book VI of the ''Quirinalia'' of Metellus of Tegernsee][Daniela Mairhofer, "Germany and Austria", in Francesco Stella, ]Lucie Doležalová
Lucie Doležalová (born 3 July 1977) is a Czech Republic, Czech Medieval studies, medievalist, Philology, philologist, Literary theory, literary scholar, and translator. She specializes in Latin literature and manuscript culture of the late Middle ...
and Danuta Shanzer (eds.), ''Latin Literatures of Medieval and Early Modern Times in Europe and Beyond: A Millennium Heritage'' (John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2024), pp. 82–83.
*''Tu tibi displiceas''[
*''Me merito censo minimam''][
*''Patribus hec omnibus'' by John of Garland][
*''Lebuine confessorum'', a 15th-century ]sequence
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is cal ...
from the Lebuïnuskerk, Deventer
The Great Church or St. Lebuinus Church () is the main church building of the Dutch city of Deventer, Netherlands.
Overview
It is a Gothic hall church, built between 1450 and 1525.
Originally consecrated to the English missionary Lebuinus, it w ...
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See also
*Reversible poem
A reversible poem, also called a palindrome poem or a reverso poem, is a poem that can be read both forwards and backwards, with a different meaning in each direction, like this:
Reversible poems, called Classical Chinese poetry genres#Huiwen, "p ...
References
Further reading
*{{cite journal , last1=Flores , first1=Enrico , first2=Giovanni , last2=Polara , title=Specimina di analisi applicate a strutture di ''Versspielerei'' latina , journal=Rendiconti dell'Accademia di Archeologia, Lettere, e Belle Arti di Napoli , volume=45 , pages=111–136 , year=1969
External links
Latin Retrograde Verse: Puzzles for the Textual Editor and Literary Historian
Poetic forms