Dactylic Decameter (also known as "heroic hexameter" and "epic meter") is the form of meter or rhythmic scheme in poetry. It has traditionally been associated with quantitative meters of classical epic poetry both in Greek and Latin and consequently regarded as the great style of Western classical poetry. Some of the main examples of use are Homer Iliad and Odyssey , Virgil Aeneid , and Ovid's Metamorphoses . Hexameters are also part of elegiac poetry in both languages, alternating with dactylic pentameter.
Video Dactylic hexameter
Structure
The dactylic hexameter has six legs (in Greek, hex ). In a tight dactylic hexameter, each leg will be dactyl (long syllable and two short), but the classic meter allows for the substitution of spondee (two long syllables) in place of dactyl in most positions. In particular, the first four legs can be dactyls or spondees more or less free. The fifth leg is usually dactyl (about 95% of the time in Homer).
The sixth leg can be filled by a trochee (short syllable then short) or a spondee. So the most normal dactylic lines are seen as follows:
- - uu | - uu | - uu | - uu | - uu | - X
(Note that - = long syllable, u = short syllable, uu = one of length or two shorts, and X = anceps syllables.)
Hexameters also have primary caesura - pauses between words, sometimes (but not always) coinciding with breaks in the sense - in one of several normal positions: After the first syllable of the second leg; after the first syllable on the third leg (caesura "masculine"); after the second tribe on the third leg if the third leg is dactyl (caesura "feminine"); after the first syllable of the fourth leg (caesar hephthemimeral).
Hexameters are often enjambed - meaning they flow from one line to the next, without terminal punctuation - which helps create long and epic narratives. They are generally considered the most magnificent and formal meter.
English example of dactylic hexameter, in quantitative meters:
- Get off at | in the dark | dell sat an | old cow | chewing nuts stalk
Quantitative gauges are very difficult to use for most English speakers. Here is an example in the normal voltage meter (first line of "Evangeline" Longfellow):
- This is | prime forest | meval. The | muttering | pine and | hemlocks
The "legs" are often compared to the size of the music and long and short syllables for the half notes (minims) and quarter notes (crotchets), respectively. Homes.E2.80.99s_meter "> Homer meter
The hexameter was first used by early Greek poets of oral traditions, and the most complete examples still to be found in their works are the Iliad and Odyssey , which influenced the writers of all the next classic epics that survive today. Early epic poems are also accompanied by music, and the tone changes associated with the Greek accent should highlight the melody, although the exact mechanism remains the topic of discussion.
Homeric poetry arranges the words to create an interaction between the fictitious ictus - the first syllable of each foot - and the accent of natural words uttered. If ictus and accent coincide too often the hexameter becomes "sing-songy". So in general, a word break occurs in the middle of a serrated foot, while ictus and accent coincide more often near the end of the line. The first line of Homer Iliad - "Sing, the goddess, the anger of the son of Peleus' Achilles" - gives an example:
- ????? ?????, ???, ????????? ???????
Divide the line into metric units:
- ????? ? | ????, ?? | ?, ?? | ???? | ??? ??? | ????
mÃÆ'ªnin ÃÆ'¡ | eide, the | ÃÆ'¡, P? | l? ÃÆ'¯ÃÆ'¡ | de? Akhi | lÃÆ'ªos
dactyl, dactyl, spondee, dactyl, dactyl, spondee.
Notice how the end of the word does not coincide with a circular foot tip; for the initial part of this line forcing the accent of each word to lie in the middle of the foot, playing against ictus.
This line also includes masculine caesura after ??? , a pause that separates the line into two parts. Homer using the feminine caesura is more common than later writers: an example occurs in Iliad i.5 "... and every bird, thus Zeus's plan achieves fulfillment":
Homer's Heterameter contains a higher proportion of dactyl than the next hexameter poem. They are also characterized by the more loosening tenet of the epics that are almost always adhered to. For example, Homer allows spondaic (though not often) sidewalks, whereas many writers have barely ever done it.
Homer also alters the form of words to allow them to customize the hexameter, usually using a dialect form: ptolis is an epic form used in place of the Attic police needed for the meter. Proper names sometimes take shape to fit the meter, such as Pouludamas instead of metric unstable Poludamas .
Note also that some lines require knowledge of digamma for its development, e.g. Iliad I.108 "You have not spoken a good word or brought one to pass":
- ?????? ? '???? ?? ?? ????? ???? ??? '?????????
Here the word ???? originally is ????? in Ionian; digamma, which then disappears, extending the last syllable of the Ancestral Greek word "spac lang =" grc "title =" text "> ????? and removes the visible defects in the meter. Digamma also saved hiatus on the third leg. This example shows the oral tradition of the Homer epic that developed before it was written in the 7th century BC.
Regardless of the occasional exceptions at the beginning of the epic, most of the later rules of hexameter composition have their origin in Homer's methods and practices.
Maps Dactylic hexameter
Latin hexameter
Hexameter came to Latin as an adaptation of the old Greek after the practice of epic singing has faded. Consequently, the measuring properties are studied as a special "rule" and not as a natural outcome of musical expression. Also, since Latin generally has a higher proportion of syllables higher than Greek, it is naturally more spondaic. So the Latin hexameter takes on its own characteristics.
An early example of a hexameter in Latin poetry is Annales from Ennius, which sets it as the standard for later Latin epics. Later, Republican writers, such as Lucretius, Catullus, and even Cicero, wrote the hexameter composition, and at this point many established Latin hexameter principles, followed by later writers such as Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, and Juvenal.. Virgil opening line for Aeneid is a classic example ::
- u u | - u u | - - | - - | - uu | - - Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris - "I sing guns and men, the first time from the edge of Troy..."
As in Greek, the lines are arranged in such a way that long metric terms - which occur at the beginning of the foot - often avoid the natural stress of a word. At the beginning of the line, the meter and stress are expected to collide, while later on they are expected to complete and coincide - an effect that gives every natural rhythm line "dum-dty-dum-dum" ("shaving and haircut") to close. Such an arrangement is a balance between excessive emphasis on the meter - which will cause the verse to be singing - and the need to provide some recurrent rhythmic guides for skilled study.
In the following example the initial hexameter Latin composition of Ennius, the geometric weight (ijt ictus ) falls in the first and last syllables of certabant ; Therefore, ictus contradicts natural stress in the second term when the word is spoken. Similarly, the second syllable of the words urbem and Romam bring ictus metric even though the former is naturally emphasized in typical pronunciation. At the foot of the line cover, the natural stress falling on the third term Remoramne and the second syllable of vocarent coincides with ictus and generates a typical "shave and a haircut" suffix: - - | - - | - - | - u u | - u u | - - certabant urbem Romam Remoramne vocarent. (Ennius, Annales 1.86)
Like their Greek predecessors, the classical Latin poet avoids a large number of broken words at the ends of the leg division except between the fourth and fifth, where it is pushed. To keep the distance rhythmic, Latin poets avoid the placement of syllables or syllables four at the end of the line. The caesura is also handled much more rigorously, with Homer's feminine caesura becoming very rare, and the second leg caesura always paired with one in the fourth.
One example of the evolution of the Latin verse form can be seen in comparative analysis of the use of spondees in Ennius' time versus Augustan age. Repeated use of the spondaic line is favored, as well as the high proportion of spondes on both of the first two legs. The following lines of Ennius will never be accepted by the next writers as they both contain recurring spondles at the beginning of successive rows:
- - | - - | - u u | - - | - uu | - - verb: "o gnata, tibi sunt ante ferendae - - | - - | - u u | - - | - uu | - -aerumnae, post ex fluvio fortuna resistet. " ( Annales 1.42f)
- "with these words: 'o princess, distress must be borne by you;
- later your luck will rise again from the river. '"
However, from Virgil that famous line, the following spondaic comes:
- - | - - | - - | - - | - uu | - - monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum. ( Aeneid III.658) - "big, shapeless, terrible monster, whose light [ie, eyes] has been removed"
Virgil and Augustan poet
By the age of August, poets like Virgil carefully followed the rules of the meter and approached it in a very rhetorical manner, looking for exploitable effects in a skilful study. For example, the following line from Aeneid (VIII.596) describes the horse's hasty movement and how "a nail rocks a collapsed field with a galloping voice":
- u u | - u u | - u u | - u u | - uu | - - quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum This line consists of five dactyl and closing spondles, an unusual rhythmic arrangement that mimics the described action. A similar effect is found in VIII.452, where Virgil describes how the Vulcan blacksmiths "lift their arms with great power to one another" in forging a shield Aeneas:
- - | - - | - - | - - | - uu | - - illi inter sese multa vi bracchia tollunt The line consists of all spondees except the usual dactyl on the fifth leg, and is meant to mimic the sound of a job knock. The third example that mixes the two effects comes from I.42, where Juno scowls that Athena is allowed to use lightning belonging to Jove to destroy Ajax ("he throws a Jove fast fire from the cloud"):
- u u | - u u | - u u | - - | - uu | - - ipsa Iovis rapidum iaculata e nubibus ignem This line is almost all dactyls except for spondee in -lata e . The rhythmic changes coupled with this harsh elution are meant to emphasize the fall of Athens thunder.
Virgil will occasionally deviate from the strict meter rules to produce special effects. An example of I.105 that describes a ship at sea during a storm makes Virgil violate metric standards for placing a single syllable word at the end of a line:
... et undis  - uu | - u u | - u u | - - | - uu | - - dat latus; insequitur cumulo praeruptus aquae mons.
The boat "gave his side to the waves, came next in a pile of steep mountains of water." By placing a monosyllable mons at the end of the line, Virgil interrupts the usual "shaving and cutting" pattern to produce a jarring rhythm, an effect that echoes the falling of a large wave to the side of a ship. The Roman poet Horace used the same trick to highlight the comedic irony that "Mountains will experience labor, and give birth to ridiculous mice" in this famous phrase from his book Ars Poetica (line 139):
- u u | - - | - - | - - | - uu | - - Partient mechanic, nascetur ridiculus mus, Another funny example that comments on the importance of this verse rule comes later in the same poem (line 263):
- - | - uu | - u u | - u u | - u u | - - Non quivis videt inmodulata poemata iudex, This line, which does not have a proper caesar, is translated "Not every critic sees a harmonious verse."
Silver Age and subsequent heroic verses
Innovation verses of the writers Augustan were carefully imitated by their successors in the Latin Period Silver Period. The form of the verse itself then changed slightly, because the hexameter quality of a poet was judged against the standards set by Virgil and other Augustan poets, a tribute to literary precedents covered by the Latin word aemulatio . Irregularities are generally regarded as idiosyncrasies or characteristic personal styles, and not imitated by the next poets. Juvenal, for example, is fond of creating passages that place a break between the fourth and fifth legs (instead of the usual caesura position), but this technique - known as the basiler of the belenik - is unrelated to others. poet.
In the final empire, the author experimented again by adding unusual limits to the standard hexameter. The verse of Ausonius rofalism is a good example; in addition to following the standard hexameter pattern, each word in a line is one syllable longer than before, for example:
- Spec, deus, aeternae stationis conciliator,
- si castis precibus veniales invigilamus,
- hers, priest, oratis placabilis adstipulare.
What is also important is the tendency among later grammarians to dissect the Virgil hexameter and earlier poets. A treatise on poetry by Diomedes Grammaticus is a good example, since this work (among other things) categorizes the verses of dactylic hexameter in a way which is then interpreted under the rubric of the gold line. Separately, these two trends show a form that becomes very artificial - more like a puzzle to solve than the media for personal poetic expression.
In the Middle Ages, some authors used a more relaxed version of the meter. Bernard of Cluny, for example, uses it in his book De Contemptu Mundi , but ignores the classical conventions that support the predictable effects of accents and rhythms both within and between verses, for example:
- Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt - vigilemus.
Ecce minaciter imminet arbiter ille supremus.
Imminet im malan ut mala terminet, aequa coronet, Indonesia Recta remuneret, anxia liberet, aethera donet.- (I.1-4: These are the last days, the worst moments: let's be on the alert.
Look at the threatening arrival of the Chief Justice He came, he came to end evil, crowned the just, justice Correct gifts, set her worries and give the sky.)
- (I.1-4: These are the last days, the worst moments: let's be on the alert.
Not all medieval authors contrasted strongly with the standards of Virgilian, and with the rediscovery of classical literature, medieval and later Renaissance writers were much more orthodox, but by then the shape had become an academic exercise. Petrarch, for example, devotes much time to his book Africa , the epic hexameter dactylic at Scipio Africanus, but this work is not appreciated in his day and remains a little read today. Instead, Dante decides to write his epic, Divine Comedy in Italian - a choice that defies the traditional epic choice of dactylic Latin hexameter - and produces the great masterpiece that was loved both then and now.
With the New Latin period, the language itself is regarded as the only medium for "serious" expression and learning, a view that leaves little room for Latin poetry. The rise of Latin Recently in the twentieth century restored classical orthodoxy among the Latins and sparked a general (if still academic) interest in the beauty of Latin poetry. Today, modern Latin poet who uses dactylic hexameter is generally equally faithful to Virgil as the Roman Age Silver poet.
Hip-hop and rap
In addition to the modern Latin poet, examples of dactylic hexameters in modern usage can often be found in hip-hop and rap lyrics, although not adequately researched sufficiently to say whether it comes from the brief idea of ​​"flow" (as in Jay-Z music) or more deliberately employed by great artists in the poetic creation of their lyrics. The relationship between dactylic hexameter and hip-hop/rap has been used primarily in teaching classical poetry to young students. Dactylic hexameter in rap/hip-hop is most often mentioned in the discussion song "Bring the Noise" by Public Enemy music artist. "Bring the Noise" has been sampled and reproduced by other artists, and both original versions of the song and cover have performed well on industry trackers such as the Billboard charts - across musical genres and various linguistic states/groups - which may anecdotally demonstrate the power of dactylic hexameter in conveying lyrical quality to the human ear, especially when it is considered that the meter has had lasting success for artists from the time of Homer to modern day.
Other languages ​​
The Seasons ( Metai ) by Kristijonas Donelaitis is a famous Lithuanian poem in quantitative dactylic hexameters. Due to the lithuanian nature, more than half of the poem's lines are entirely composed of spondees except the mandatory daktil on the fifth leg.
Der Messias by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock is a German poem in accented dactylic hexameters.
Note
External links
- Introduction to dactylic hexameter for Latin verses.
- Reading dactylic hexameter, especially Homer.
- The reading of Homer Iliad 23.62-107 (in Greek), by Stanley Lombardo.
- Read Oral Virgil Aeneid , by Robert Sonkowsky, University of Minnesota.
- Greek hexameteter analysis tool, Vilnius University.
- Audio/Visual Tutorials for Hexameter Vergil, by Dale Grote, UNC Charlotte.
- Hexameter.co, practice the dactylic hexameter scan line from various Latin authors
- Rodney Merrill reads her translation of Homer Iliad, in the English verse dactylic hexameter
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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