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hexameter
hexameter [Gr.,=measure of six], in prosody, a line to be scanned in six feet (see versification ). The most celebrated hexameter measure is dactylic, which was the meter for most Greek and Latin poetry. In dactylic hexameter each foot may have a long syllable followed by two shorts, except the la...
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Bernard of Cluny
Bernard of Cluny or Bernard of Morlaix , fl. 1150, French Cluniac monk, of English parentage. He wrote De contemptu mundi [on contempt for the world], a poem in 3,000 hexameters. On it Horatio Parker based his oratorio Hora novissima, and from it John Mason Neale drew the words of Jerusalem...
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Homeric Hymns
Homeric Hymns , name applied to a body of 34 hexameter poems falsely attributed to Homer by the ancients. Composed probably between 800 and 300 BC, they are complimentary verses addressed to the various gods, such as Aphrodite, Apollo, Demeter, and Hermes. Although sometimes of great beauty, they ...
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alexandrine
alexandrine , in prosody, a line of 12 syllables (or 13 if the last syllable is unstressed). Its name probably derives from the fact that some poems of the 12th and 13th cent. about Alexander the Great were written in this meter. In French, rhyming couplets of two alexandrines of equal length, usual...
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elegy
elegy in Greek and Roman poetry, a poem written in elegiac verse (i.e., couplets consisting of a hexameter line followed by a pentameter line). The form dates back to 7th cent. BC in Greece and poets such as Archilochus, Mimnermus, and Tytraeus. Later taken up and developed in Roman poetry, it was ...
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Quintus Ennius
Quintus Ennius , 239-169? BC, Latin poet, regarded by the Romans as the father of Latin poetry, b. Calabria. His birthplace was the meeting point of three civilizations—Oscan, Greek, and Latin—and Ennius learned to speak the languages of these cultures. He served in Sardinia under Cato t...
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riddle
riddle puzzling question, specifically one that consists of a fanciful description or definition of something to be guessed. A famous riddle was asked by the Sphinx: "What goes on four legs in the morning, on two at noon, on three at night?" Oedipus guessed the answer correctly: "Man—...
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versification
versification principles of metrical practice in poetry. In different literatures poetic form is achieved in various ways; usually, however, a definite and predictable pattern is evident in the language. In ancient Greek poetry, the pattern was in the quantity of the syllables, i.e., the duration o...
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Arthur Hugh Clough
Arthur Hugh Clough , 1819-61, English poet. He was educated at Rugby and Balliol College, Oxford, where he became friends with Matthew Arnold . After graduation (1841) he was fellow and tutor of Oriel College until 1848 when he resigned. During the next few years he traveled on the Continent. In 18...
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Lucretius
Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus) , c.99 BC-c.55 BC, Roman poet and philosopher. Little is known about his life. A chronicle of St. Jerome speaks of the loss of his reason through taking a love potion. It states that in sane intervals he had written books that were later emended by Cicero. The poe...
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