Iliad scansion12/3/2023 So the sixth line is packed behind the fifth, imitating its sound cluster precisely the way in which the Trojan ranks, packed together in battle formation, are massed one behind the other.Īlso of note is the way that the two adjectives in the fourth line- paphladzonta, the “roiling” waves, and polyphloisboio, the “greatly-roaring” sea-replicate each other’s consonants: the “p”s, the “ph”s, the “l”s, the soft “s”s and “z” sounds. (In other words, the near-rhyming words do what the waves do.) And, as if to make the analogy concrete, the sixth line-which reconnects the imagined world of the sea to the narrated world of the Trojans at war-repeats the “some before … others hard behind” language of the fifth: the waves are all’ … ep alla the Trojans are alloi … ep’ alloi. Note, first of all, how the last words of the first, third, fifth, and sixth lines of this passage all end with the same sound combination, loaded with liquid “l”s ( aellêi, “maelstrom” polla, “many”: ep’ alla, “others hard behind,” ep’alloi, “others hard behind”): these liquid “l” sounds (with some explosive “p”s thrown in in the third, fifth, and sixth lines) beautifully evoke the sounds of the roiling waters, even as the insistent repetition of the “p-ll” sound cluster from line to line gives a sense of whitecaps breaking on the beach, one after another. (just so) (the Trojans) (in front) some (were packed together) (but)( hard behind) (others) MCMXCVI C.E.HOSS TROE-EHS pro men ALL-oy ah-RAY-roh-tehz, OW-tahr ep’ ALL-oy Which is scanned as: /I3/II/I3/II/I3/Ic/. In contrast, my own poem "Hora Diei Primula" starts: Which is scanned as: /I3/I3/II/II/I3/II/. To give an example, here is the first line of Virgil's Aeneid, with long syllables in strong characters:Īrma vi rumque ca nô, Trôiae quî prîmus ab ôrîs Latin Poetic Meters Dactylic Hexameter Although the name means "six feet of dactyls", this line is actually formed by four dactyls that can become spondees, a dactyl that must remain a dactyl, and a spondee that can have its final syllable shortened, like so: So at most times, a spondee is /II/, but at the end of a line it is /ID/. Spondee A spondee is a long syllable followed by another long syllable, except that at the end of a line, any syllable can be long or short. When it must be a true dactyl, I will note it as /I3/. When a dactyl may be replaced by a spondee, I will note it as /IB/. A dactyl consists of a long syllable followed by two short syllables, though the two short syllables may often be replaced by one long one, making the foot a spondee. Some of the different feet are:ĭactyl Dactyls are a very common foot in Latin poetry. I am using an upended, but more HTML-compatible, version of the standard notation for poetic feet, composed of the symbols I,c,3,D,B for syllables and / for the separations of feet. These feet are very similar to the ones used by english, except that they are based on quantity instead of accent and a single type of foot can have a variant form. Like English, Latin organizes its poetry in feet. Pronounced as the first syllable with "-st" added to the end. If the second word is est, "is," the syllable is This syllable is pronounced either asĪ combination of the two syllables, or, by individual choice, as the second Value of the longer of the two syllables. Of the second word elide, forming a single consonant, which has the H, the last syllable of the first word and the first syllable Or m, and the second begins with a vowel or If two words are on the same poetic line, and the first ends with a vowel.The digraphs (two-letter combinations) ch, ph, th,Ĭount as a single consonant, as long as they are in the same word.Two consonants for the purposes of scansion. The letter x (and sometimes z) counts as.It makes its syllable "long by position." If a vowel has two or more consonants between itself and the next vowel,.Oe, and ui, but only when none of the vowels in theĭipthongs are long or marked by a dieresis (e.g. This also includes the diphthongs æ, au, ei, eu,. marked with a macron (a circumflex on these This means that unlike English, where the accent of a given syllableĭetermines its value in verse, a Latin syllable's value is determined by the Latin, like may other classical languages, uses quantitative meter for Guide to the scansion of Latin Poetry Scansion of Latin Poetry
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