Lucretius 6
Alastor
has always stuck in my mind. Addressing Virgil, he says:
'Oh Wielder of the noblest measure ever moulded by the lips of man.'
The measure is the anapestic hexameter (English terminology) and
Tennyson nicely captures the cadence, a kind of rolling, rumbling
sound, like a gentle earthquake. It's a great measure for capturing
the sound of action, particularly anything whirling or churning or
turning, so it's great for epic of course. Virgil was a master of it
but so is Lucretius. As far as I can tell, Lucretius uses much longer
periods than Virgil, which gives his verse a grand lyrical sweep. Here
is an example of the sound matching the sense, where Lucretius, on the
topic of optical illusions, writes about boys putting the world in a
spin:
atria versari et circumcursare columnae
usque adeo fit uti pueris videantur, ubi ipsi
desierunt verti, vix ut iam credere possint
non supra sese ruere omnia tecta minari. (IV, 400-404)
[Paraphrasing: Rooms seem to boys to whirl and columns revolve when
they themselves stop spinning, till they can hardly believe the whole
building won't collapse upon them.]
The cycling motion is neatly captured in the first line, and the last
line nicely captures a lurching motion thanks to the elision 'ruer(e)
omnia', which is in the middle of the line, where the period naturally
ends thanks to the comma in the middle of the previous line. It's top
verse. And it's in a marvellous paragraph where Lucretius records
other examples of optical illusions involving panoramic views of the
landscape, and a puddle in the crack between paving stones mirroring
the sky. It's a paragraph that really stretches the imagination. Also,
just before it, there is a detailed discussion of mirrors, whose
reflections vindicate the kind of materialist logic he uses.
I never knew the Romans had such good technology with mirrors. I infer
from his arguments that their mirrors could be very faithful. I
thought they were polished bronze but I guess they must have developed
a better technology than that.
John W. Kennedy
> Alfred Tennyson wrote a poem in honour of Virgil and one line of it
> has always stuck in my mind. Addressing Virgil, he says:
>
> 'Oh Wielder of the noblest measure ever moulded by the lips of man.'
The correct lines are:
Wielder of the stateliest measure
ever moulded by the lips of man.
> The measure is the anapestic hexameter (English terminology)
It's nothing of the sort. In particular, it is no more in English
anapests than "An der schönen blauen Donau" is a polka. The poem is in a
nonce four-line stanza of lines of alternating 4 and 4 1/2 trochees.
Tennyson also wrote:
These lame hexameters the strong-winged music of Homer!
No -- but a most burlesque barbarous experiment.
When was a harsher sound ever heard, ye Muses, in England?
When did a frog coarser croak upon our Helicon?
Hexameters no worse than daring Germany gave us,
Barbarous experiment, barbarous hexameters.
--
John W. Kennedy
"Never try to take over the international economy based on a radical
feminist agenda if you're not sure your leader isn't a transvestite."
-- David Misch: "She-Spies", "While You Were Out"
Alastor
Wow John that's a spirited reply. I should have said dactyl, not
anapest. But that's just a slip of the tongue/computer key. And maybe
I should have dusted off my copy of Tennyson. But that's just me being
a bit lazy. Anyhow, it's nice to know I have a keen critic looking
over my shoulder. I could make some other slip-ups and I hope you'll
pounce on those too like a schoolmaster with a cane in hand! In the
meantime, I'll keep sticking my hand out for some more. Cheers.
John W. Kennedy
No, it isn't in English dactyls, either.
An example of English-style anapests? Listen to this!
Dactyls in English are also composed of three syllables.
To finish, the amphibrach, too, is of triple construction.
The obvious analysis of "To Virgil" is that it is, as I said, in
alternating lines of 4 and 4 1/2 trochees. It could also be analyzed, I
suppose, as pairs of headless lines of four and five iambs, the first
invariably feminine and the second masculine, but that seems silly.
--
John W. Kennedy
"Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts. Only the heir to the throne
of the kingdom of idiots would fight a war on twelve fronts"
-- J. Michael Straczynski. "Babylon 5", "Ceremonies of Light and Dark"
Alastor
>
> - Show quoted text -
Hi again John
Thanks again for your interest. I think there is some confusion here
and I can't quite understand what you are getting at. I'll show you
how I scan the first line I quoted from Lucretius and then you tell me
what is wrong with it. I'll use L for long and s for short.
atria [Lss]
versar(e) [LL]
et circ [LL]
umcurs [LL]
are col [Lss]
umnae [LL]
That's 6 English feet in the dactylic measure Lss. There are no
trochees here but maybe you are referring to Tennyson's poem, which I
still haven't looked at.
Alastor
>
> - Show quoted text -
By the way, thanks for bringing up this issue. Until I formally
scanned that first line just now, I didn't know there were so many
spondees (LL) in it. That's unusual and it helps explain the rhythmic
movement of spinning.
John W. Kennedy
You (mis)quoted Tennyson in the first place, and then spoke of "English
terminology", and named a meter that Vergil never (as far as I can
recall) used. Of /course/ I supposed you were talking about the Tennyson.
--
John W. Kennedy
"There are those who argue that everything breaks even in this old dump
of a world of ours. I suppose these ginks who argue that way hold that
because the rich man gets ice in the summer and the poor man gets it in
the winter things are breaking even for both. Maybe so, but I'll swear I
can't see it that way."
-- The last words of Bat Masterson
Alastor
>
> - Show quoted text -
Hi again John Kennedy. Weren't you supposed to have been assassinated
in the 1960's? But if you're going to come back to haunt us, a sniper
is a good choice. I'll try to keep myself hidden in future but you're
bound to get me again sooner or later. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,
if John don't get me, someone else must.
John W. Kennedy
> Hi again John Kennedy. Weren't you supposed to have been assassinated
> in the 1960's?
You're 50 years too late for that one.
--
John W. Kennedy
"But now is a new thing which is very old--
that the rich make themselves richer and not poorer,
which is the true Gospel, for the poor's sake."
-- Charles Williams. "Judgement at Chelmsford"
Odysseus
<2aa71afd-aede-4640...@i7g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
Alastor <ros...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mar 25, 3:11 am, "John W. Kennedy" <jwke...@attglobal.net> wrote:
<snip>
>
> Hi again John Kennedy. Weren't you supposed to have been assassinated
> in the 1960's?
Reading W as _digamma_? ;)
--
Odysseus