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 and pendant catalexis

It has been argued that catalexis can be divided into two types.L. P. E. Parker (1976)
"Catalexis"
''The Classical Quarterly'', Vol. 26, No. 1 (1976), pp. 14-28; p. 15. (Here "x" stands for an '' anceps'' syllable.) :(a) When a line with a pendant ending such as trochaic (– u – x) is made catalectic, the result is a line with a blunt (or "masculine") ending (– u –). :(b) When a line with a blunt ending such as iambic (x – u –) is made catalectic, the result is a line with a pendant ending (u – x). An example of a blunt line becoming pendant in catalexis is Goethe's poem Heidenröslein, or, in the same metre, the English carol Good King Wenceslas: :Good King Wenceslas looked out, (4 beats, blunt) : On the Feast of Stephen, (3 beats, pendant) :When the snow lay round about, (4 beats, blunt) : Deep and crisp and even; (3 beats, pendant) Another example is the children's song Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, of which the first stanza ends as follows: :Here we go round the mulberry bush (4 beats, blunt) : On a cold and frosty morning (3 beats, pendant) In all of these songs, when they are set to music, there is a lengthening of the penultimate syllable in order to equalise the two lines. However, there is not enough evidence to tell if a similar phenomenon occurred in Ancient Greek. When a poem is doubly catalectic (brachycatalectic), that is, shortened by two syllables, a blunt ending remains blunt: :Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound (4 beats) : That saved a wretch like me. (3 beats) :I once was lost, but now am found, (4 beats) : Was blind, but now I see. (3 beats)

Quantitative metres

In languages which use quantitative metres, such as Latin, Ancient Greek, Arabic, Persian, and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

, the final syllable of any line is '' anceps'', that is, indifferently long or short. According to one view dating back to ancient times, even if the final syllable is prosodically short, it counts as long because of the pause which follows it (see brevis in longo). Thus any line ending x – u –, when catalectic, becomes u – x. An example in Ancient Greek is the iambic tetrameter, which in normal and catalectic form is as follows: :, x – u – , x – u – , x – u – , x – u – , :, x – u – , x – u – , x – u – , u – – , In classical Arabic, the most commonly used metre, the ''

ṭawīl ''Ṭawīl'' ( ar, طويل, literally 'long'), or ''al-Ṭawīl'' (), is a meter used in classical Arabic poetry. It comprises distichs (''bayt'') of two 'lines'—in Arabic usually written side by side, with a space dividing them, the first bei ...

'', has normal and catalectic forms as follows: :, u – x , u – x – , u – x , u – u – , :, u – x , u – x – , u – u , u – – , In

, a comparison between the traditional śloka and the mandākrāntā metre reveals the same type of catalexis. The first line of the Bhagavad Gita scans as follows: :, – – – – , u – – – , , u u – – , u – u – , whereas the metre is as follows: :, – – – – , u uu uu – , , – u – – , u – – , A similar phenomenon is also found in classical Persian. For example, the metre based on the choriamb pattern (– u u –) has a shortened form as follows: :, – u u – , – u u – , – u u – , – u u – , :, – u u – , – u u – , – u – , In Latin and Greek, the rarely used trochaic octonarius is not catalectic, but the common

trochaic septenarius In 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 use ...

is catalectic: :, – u – x , – u – x , , – u – x , – u – x , :, – u – x , – u – x , , – u – x , – u – , The anapaestic octonarius and anapaestic septenarius differ as follows. When the final syllable is removed, the final element must be a long syllable, not a double short (see Metres of Roman comedy): :, uu – uu – , uu – uu – , , uu – uu – , uu – uu – , :, uu – uu – , uu – uu – , , uu – uu – , uu – – ,

Catalexis in Greek poetry

Catalexis was common in Greek and Latin meter, and also in ancient Sanskrit verse.West, M.L. (1982)
"Three topics in Greek metre"
''Classical Quarterly'' Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 281-297. Catalectic endings are particularly common where the rhythm of the verse is dactylic ( – u u ), trochaic ( – u ), or anapestic ( u u – ); they tend to be associated with the end of a strophe or period, so much so that it can almost be said that acatalectic forms cannot end a period. In classical verse, the final syllable of a line always counted as long, so that if a dactyl ( – u u ) is made catalectic, it becomes a spondee ( – – ). Ancient poetry was often performed to music, and the question arises of what music accompanied a catalectic ending. A few ancient Greek poems survive with authentic musical notation. Four of these are by Mesomedes (early second century CE). Secondary sources of Mesomedes' poems To Helios and To Nemesis are in a catalectic meter known as apokrota "sonorous." In each case, in place of the missing short element of the text (i.e., missing syllable) one often finds lengthening signs. In two cases in To Helios, this appears to be a three-note melisma. It is possible ancient use of catalexis indicated some form of melody or continued singing in place of the missing syllables. In ancient Greek drama, catalectic meters may have been associated with a male aulete or had some other special use. For example, of Menander's surviving plays, almost all are in iambic trimeters. He changed the meter in one long scene in Misanthrope to 15-syllable catalectic iambic tetrameter recited to an

aulos An ''aulos'' ( grc, αὐλός, plural , ''auloi'') or ''tibia'' (Latin) was an ancient Greek wind instrument, depicted often in art and also attested by archaeology. Though ''aulos'' is often translated as "flute" or " double flute", it was ...

accompaniment.

Catalexis in Latin poetry

Poem 25 by Catullus is in iambic tetrameter catalectic. Of Catullus' extant 114 or so poems and fragments, this meter appears only in this poem.

Catalexis in music

Venantius Fortunatus' hymn ''Pange lingua'' is in trochaic tetrameter catalectic—the meter of the marching chants of the Roman armies. The hymn is one of the oldest with surviving musical notation. As Greek meter is often used to describe musical phrasing, some famous themes include: *The slow movement to Haydn's Surprise Symphony ( spondaic dimeter catalectic) *The theme of Weber's Rondo brillante in E-flat ( anapestic tetrameter brachycatalectic) *The slow movement of Beethoven's 7th symphony (alternating acatalectic and catalectic dactylic tetrameter)

References

{{reflist Poetic rhythm