Heavy Construction

DACTYLIC VERSE.

Dactylic Hexameter.

615.

- | - | - || | - | - |- [QUERY]

[QUERY]

NOTE: The last foot is usually said to be a spondee, but is in reality a trochee standing for a dactyl, since the final syllable is not measured.

a. For any foot, except the fifth, a spondee may be substituted.

b. Rarely a spondee is found in the fifth foot; the verse is then called spondaic and usually ends with a word of four syllables.

Thus in Ecl. iv. 49 the verse ends with incrémentum.

c. The hexameter has regularly one principal caesura - sometimes two - almost always accompanied by a pause in the sense.

1. The principal caesura is usually after the thesis (less commonly in the arsis) of the third foot, dividing the verse into two parts in sense and rhythm. See examples in d.

2. It may also be after the thesis (less commonly in the arsis) of the fourth foot. In this case there is often another caesura in the second foot, so that the verse is divided into three parts: -

• 

• parte fe|rox || ár|densque ocu|lis || et | sibila | colla. - Aen. v. 277.

  

• 

• NOTE: Often the only indication of the principal among a number of caesuras is the break in the sense.

  

• A caesura occurring after the first syllable of a foot is called masculine. A caesura occurring after the second syllable of a foot is called feminine (as in the fifth foot of the third and fourth verses in d). A caesura may also be found in any foot of the verse, but a proper caesural pause could hardly occur in the first or sixth.

When the fourth foot ends a word, the break (properly a diaeresis) is sometimes improperly called bucolic caesura, from its frequency in pastoral poetry.

d. The first seven verses of the AEneid, divided according to the foregoing rules, will appear as follows. The principal caesura in each verse is marked by double lines: -

*beginverse

Arma vi|rumque ca|n=o || Tr=o|iae qu=i | pr=imus ab | =or=is

=itali|am f=a|t=o profu|gus || L=a|v=iniaque | v=enit

l=itora, | multum il|le et ter|r=is || iac|t=atus et | alt=o

v=i supe|rum || sae|vae memo|rem I=u|n=onis ob | =iram;

multa quo|que et bel|l=o pas|sus || dum | conderet | urbem,

=infer|retque de|=os Lati|=o, || genus | unde La|t=inum,

Alb=a|n=ique pa|tr=es, || at|que altae | moenia | R=omae.

*endverse

1. The feminine caesura is seen in the following: -

• 

• Dís geni|tí potu|ére: || te|nent medi|a omnia| silvae. - Aen. vi. 131.

  

• 

• NOTE: The Hexameter is thus illustrated in English verse: -

  

• *beginverse

  

• Over the sea, past Crete, on the Syrian shore to the southward, Dwells in the well-tilled lowland a dark-haired AEthiop people, Skilful with needle and loom, and the arts of the dyer and carver, Skilful, but feeble of heart; for they know not the lords of Olympus, Lovers of men; neither broad-browed Zeus, nor Pallas Athene, Teacher of wisdom to heroes, bestower of might in the battle; Share not the cunning of Hermes, nor list to the songs of Apollo, Fearing the stars of the sky, and the roll of the blue salt water.

  

• - Kingsley's Andromeda.

  

• *endverse