Hendecasyllable

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In poetry, a hendecasyllable (sometimes hendecasyllabic) is a line of eleven syllables. The term may refer to several different poetic meters, the older of which are quantitative and used chiefly in classical (Ancient Greek and Latin) poetry, and the newer of which are syllabic or accentual-syllabic and used in medieval and modern poetry.

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Classical

In classical poetry, "hendecasyllable" or "hendecasyllabic" may refer to any of three distinct 11-syllable Aeolic meters, [1] used first in Ancient Greece and later, with little modification, by Roman poets. [2]

Aeolic meters are characterized by an Aeolic base × × followed by a choriamb – u u –; where = a long syllable, u = a short syllable, and × = an anceps, that is, a syllable either long or short. [2] The three Aeolic hendecasyllables (with base and choriamb in bold) are:

Phalaecian hendecasyllable

(Latin : hendecasyllabus phalaecius):

× × – u u – u – u – – [2] 

This is a line used only occasionally in Greek choral odes and scolia, but was a favorite of Catullus who realized the Aeolic base as – – or – u or u – but not as u u; [3] for example, in the first poem in his collection (with formal equivalent, substituting English stress for Latin length):

The base with – – is by far the most common in Catullus, and in later poets such as Statius and Martial was the only one used. There is usually a caesura in the line after the 5th or 6th syllable. [5]

In the first part of his poetry collection, Catullus uses the Phalaecian hendecasyllable as given above in 41 poems. In addition, in two of his poems (55 and 58b) Catullus uses a variation of the metre, in which the 4th and 5th syllables can sometimes be contracted into a single long syllable. In poem 55 there are twelve decasyllables and ten normal lines: [6]

Poem 58b is thought by some scholars to be a fragment which was formerly part of this one; although others think it an independent poem. [7]

Alcaic hendecasyllable

(Latin : hendecasyllabus alcaicus):

× – u – × – u u – u – [2] 

Here the Aeolic base is truncated to a single anceps. This meter typically appears as the first two lines of an Alcaic stanza. [2] (For an English example, see §English, below.)

Sapphic hendecasyllable

A papyrus manuscript preserving Sappho's "Fragment 5", a poem using one of the Aeolic hendecasyllabics in its Sapphic stanzas British Library papyrus 739.jpg
A papyrus manuscript preserving Sappho's "Fragment 5", a poem using one of the Aeolic hendecasyllabics in its Sapphic stanzas

(Latin : hendecasyllabus sapphicus):

– u – × – u u – u – – [2] 

Again, the Aeolic base is truncated. This meter typically appears as the first three lines of a Sapphic stanza, though it was also sometimes used in stichic verse, for example by Seneca and Boethius. [2] Sappho wrote many of the stanzas subsequently named after her, for example (with formal equivalent, substituting English stress for Greek length):

Italian

The hendecasyllable (Italian : endecasillabo) is the principal metre in Italian poetry. Its defining feature is a constant stress on the tenth syllable, so that the number of syllables in the verse may vary, equaling eleven in the usual case where the final word is stressed on the penultimate syllable. The verse also has a stress preceding the caesura, on either the fourth or sixth syllable. The first case is called endecasillabo a minore, or lesser hendecasyllable, and has the first hemistich equivalent to a quinario ; the second is called endecasillabo a maiore, or greater hendecasyllable, and has a settenario as the first hemistich. [9]

There is a strong tendency for hendecasyllabic lines to end with feminine rhymes (causing the total number of syllables to be eleven, hence the name), but ten-syllable lines ("Ciò che 'n grembo a Benaco star non può") and twelve-syllable lines ("Ergasto mio, perché solingo e tacito") are encountered as well. Lines of ten or twelve syllables are more common in rhymed verse; versi sciolti , which rely more heavily on a pleasant rhythm for effect, tend toward a stricter eleven-syllable format. As a novelty, lines longer than twelve syllables can be created by the use of certain verb forms and affixed enclitic pronouns ("Ottima è l'acqua; ma le piante abbeverinosene.").

Additional accents beyond the two mandatory ones provide rhythmic variation and allow the poet to express thematic effects. A line in which accents fall consistently on even-numbered syllables ("Al còr gentìl rempàira sèmpre amóre") is called iambic (giambico) and may be a greater or lesser hendecasyllable. This line is the simplest, commonest and most musical but may become repetitive, especially in longer works. Lesser hendecasyllables often have an accent on the seventh syllable ("fàtta di giòco in figùra d'amóre"). Such a line is called dactylic (dattilico) and its less pronounced rhythm is considered particularly appropriate for representing dialogue. Another kind of greater hendecasyllable has an accent on the third syllable ("Se Mercé fosse amìca a' miei disìri") and is known as anapestic (anapestico). This sort of line has a crescendo effect and gives the poem a sense of speed and fluidity.

It is considered improper for the lesser hendecasyllable to use a word accented on its antepenultimate syllable (parola sdrucciola) for its mid-line stress. A line like "Più non sfavìllano quegli òcchi néri", which delays the caesura until after the sixth syllable, is not considered a valid hendecasyllable.

Most classical Italian poems are composed in hendecasyllables, including the major works of Dante, Francesco Petrarca, Ludovico Ariosto, and Torquato Tasso. The rhyme systems used include terza rima, ottava, sonnet and canzone, and some verse forms use a mixture of hendecasyllables and shorter lines. From the early 16th century onward, hendecasyllables are often used without a strict system, with few or no rhymes, both in poetry and in drama. This is known as verso sciolto. An early example is Le Api ("the bees") by Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai, written around 1517 and published in 1525 (with formal equivalent paraphrase which mirrors the original's syllabic counts, varied caesurae, and line- and hemistich-final stress profiles):

Like other early Italian-language tragedies, the Sophonisba of Gian Giorgio Trissino (1515) is in blank hendecasyllables. Later examples can be found in the Canti of Giacomo Leopardi, where hendecasyllables are alternated with settenari.

Polish

The hendecasyllabic metre (Polish : jedenastozgłoskowiec) was very popular in Polish poetry, especially in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, owing to strong Italian literary influence. It was used by Jan Kochanowski, [12] Piotr Kochanowski (who translated Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso), Sebastian Grabowiecki, Wespazjan Kochowski and Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski. The greatest Polish Romantic poet, Adam Mickiewicz, set his poem Grażyna in this measure. The Polish hendecasyllable is widely used when translating English blank verse.

The eleven-syllable line is normally a line of 5+6 syllables with medial caesura, primary stresses on the fourth and tenth syllables, and feminine endings on both half-lines. [13] Although the form can accommodate a fully iambic line, there is no such tendency in practice, word stresses falling variously on any of the initial syllables of each half-line. [13]

o o o S s | o o o o S s  o=any syllable, S=stressed syllable, s=unstressed syllable

A popular form of Polish literature that employs the hendecasyllable is the Sapphic stanza: 11/11/11/5.

The Polish hendecasyllable is often combined with an 8-syllable line: 11a/8b/11a/8b. Such a stanza was used by Mickiewicz in his ballads, as in the following example (with formal equivalent paraphrase):

Portuguese

The hendecasyllable (Portuguese: hendecassílabo) is a common meter in Portuguese poetry. The best-known Portuguese poem composed in hendecasyllables is Luís de Camões' Lusiads , which begins as follows:

In Portuguese, the hendecasyllable meter is often called "decasyllable" (decassílabo), even when the work in question uses overwhelmingly feminine rhymes (as is the case with the Lusiads). This is due to Portuguese prosody considering verses to end at the last stressed syllable, thus the aforementioned verses are effectively decasyllabic according to Portuguese scansion.

Spanish

The hendecasyllable (Spanish : endecasílabo) is less pervasive in Spanish poetry than in Italian or Portuguese, but it is commonly used with Italianate verse forms like sonnets and ottava rima (as found, for example, in Alonso de Ercilla's epic La Araucana ).

Spanish dramatists often use hendecasyllables in tandem with shorter lines like heptasyllables, as can be seen in Rosaura's opening speech from Calderón's La vida es sueño :

English

The term "hendecasyllable" most often refers to an imitation of Greek or Latin metrical lines, notably by Alfred Tennyson, Swinburne, and Robert Frost ("For Once Then Something"). Contemporary American poets Annie Finch ("Lucid Waking") and Patricia Smith ("The Reemergence of the Noose") have published recent examples. In English, which lacks phonemic length, poets typically substitute stressed syllables for long, and unstressed syllables for short. Tennyson, however, attempted to maintain the quantitative features of the meter (while supporting them with concurrent stress) in his Alcaic stanzas, the first two lines of which are Alcaic hendecasyllables:

O mighty-mouth'd inventor of harmonies,
O skill'd to sing of Time or Eternity,
 God-gifted organ-voice of England,
 Milton, a name to resound for ages; [19]

Tennyson: "Milton", lines 1-4

Occasionally "hendecasyllable" is used to denote a line of iambic pentameter with a feminine ending, as in the first line of John Keats's Endymion : "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever".

See also

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Alexandrine is a name used for several distinct types of verse line with related metrical structures, most of which are ultimately derived from the classical French alexandrine. The line's name derives from its use in the Medieval French Roman d'Alexandre of 1170, although it had already been used several decades earlier in Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne. The foundation of most alexandrines consists of two hemistichs (half-lines) of six syllables each, separated by a caesura :

o o o o o o | o o o o o o  o=any syllable; |=caesura

Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter or rhythmic scheme frequently used in Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The scheme of the hexameter is usually as follows :

In poetry, metre or meter is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study and the actual use of metres and forms of versification are both known as prosody.

In languages with quantitative poetic metres, such as Ancient Greek, Latin, Arabic, Sanskrit, and classical Persian, an anceps is a position in a metrical pattern which can be filled by either a long or a short syllable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sapphic stanza</span> Four-line stanza form

The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho, is an Aeolic verse form of four lines. Originally composed in quantitative verse and unrhymed, since the Middle Ages imitations of the form typically feature rhyme and accentual prosody. It is "the longest lived of the Classical lyric strophes in the West".

Syllabic verse is a poetic form having a fixed or constrained number of syllables per line, while stress, quantity, or tone play a distinctly secondary role — or no role at all — in the verse structure. It is common in languages that are syllable-timed, such as French or Finnish — as opposed to stress-timed languages such as English, in which accentual verse and accentual-syllabic verse are more common.

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An Asclepiad is a line of poetry following a particular metrical pattern. The form is attributed to Asclepiades of Samos and is one of the Aeolic metres.

The Alcaic stanza is a Greek lyrical meter, an Aeolic verse form traditionally believed to have been invented by Alcaeus, a lyric poet from Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, about 600 BC. The Alcaic stanza and the Sapphic stanza named for Alcaeus' contemporary, Sappho, are two important forms of Classical poetry. The Alcaic stanza consists of two Alcaic hendecasyllables, followed by an Alcaic enneasyllable and an Alcaic decasyllable.

Decasyllable is a poetic meter of ten syllables used in poetic traditions of syllabic verse. In languages with a stress accent, it is the equivalent of pentameter with iambs or trochees.

Glyconic is a form of meter in classical Greek and Latin poetry. The glyconic line is the most basic and most commonly used form of Aeolic verse, and it is often combined with others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glossary of literary terms</span>

This glossary of literary terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in the discussion, classification, analysis, and criticism of all types of literature, such as poetry, novels, and picture books, as well as of grammar, syntax, and language techniques. For a more complete glossary of terms relating to poetry in particular, see Glossary of poetry terms.

This is a glossary of poetry terms.

Greek and Latin metre is an overall term used for the various rhythms in which Greek and Latin poems were composed. The individual rhythmical patterns used in Greek and Latin poetry are also known as "metres".

Aeolic verse is a classification of Ancient Greek lyric poetry referring to the distinct verse forms characteristic of the two great poets of Archaic Lesbos, Sappho and Alcaeus, who composed in their native Aeolic dialect. These verse forms were taken up and developed by later Greek and Roman poets and some modern European poets.

The ionic is a four-syllable metrical unit (metron) of light-light-heavy-heavy that occurs in ancient Greek and Latin poetry. According to Hephaestion it was known as the Ionicos because it was used by the Ionians of Asia Minor; and it was also known as the Persicos and was associated with Persian poetry. Like the choriamb, in Greek quantitative verse the ionic never appears in passages meant to be spoken rather than sung. "Ionics" may refer inclusively to poetry composed of the various metrical units of the same total quantitative length that may be used in combination with ionics proper: ionics, choriambs, and anaclasis. Equivalent forms exist in English poetry and in classical Persian poetry.

Latin prosody is the study of Latin poetry and its laws of meter. The following article provides an overview of those laws as practised by Latin poets in the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire, with verses by Catullus, Horace, Virgil and Ovid as models. Except for the early Saturnian poetry, which may have been accentual, Latin poets borrowed all their verse forms from the Greeks, despite significant differences between the two languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French alexandrine</span> French poetic line of 12 syllables

The French alexandrine is a syllabic poetic metre of 12 syllables with a medial caesura dividing the line into two hemistichs (half-lines) of six syllables each. It was the dominant long line of French poetry from the 17th through the 19th century, and influenced many other European literatures which developed alexandrines of their own.

The Sapphic stanza is the only stanzaic form adapted from Greek and Latin poetry to be used widely in Polish literature. It was introduced during the Renaissance, and since has been used frequently by many prominent poets. The importance of the Sapphic stanza for Polish literature lies not only in its frequent use, but also in the fact that it formed the basis of many new strophes, built up of hendecasyllables and pentasyllables.

Anaclasis is a feature of poetic metre, in which a long and a short syllable exchange places in a metrical pattern.

References

  1. Halporn, James W.; Ostwald, Martin; Rosenmeyer, Thomas G. (1980). The Meters of Greek and Latin Poetry (Revised ed.). Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. pp. 129–132. ISBN   0-87220-243-7.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Halporn, James W.; Ostwald, Martin; Rosenmeyer, Thomas G. (1980). The Meters of Greek and Latin Poetry (Revised ed.). Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. pp. 29–34, 97–102. ISBN   0-87220-243-7.
  3. Quinn, Kenneth, ed. (1973). Catullus: The Poems (2nd ed.). London: St. Martin's Press. pp. xxxiii–xxxiv. ISBN   0-333-01787-0.
  4. Quinn, Kenneth, ed. (1973). Catullus: The Poems (2nd ed.). London: St. Martin's Press. p. 1. ISBN   0-333-01787-0.
  5. D. S. Raven (1965), Latin Metre (Faber), p. 139.
  6. Fordyce (1961). Catullus, p. 225.
  7. Fordyce (1961). Catullus, p. 226.
  8. "Phainetai Moi". www.stoa.org. n.d. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  9. Claudio Ciociola (2010) "Endecasillabo", Enciclopedia dell'Italiano (in Italian). Accessed March 2013.
  10. Alamanni, Luigi; Rucellai, Giovanni (1804). Bianchini, Giuseppe Maria; Titi, Roberto (eds.). La Coltivazione di Luigi Alamanni e Le Api di Giovanni Rucellai. Milan: Società Tipografica de'Classici Italiani. pp. 239–240.
  11. Hunt, Leigh (October 1844). "A Jar of Honey from Mount Hybla [No. XI]". Ainsworth's Magazine. 6. Open Court Publishing Co: 390–395.
  12. Compare: Summary [in:] Lucylla Pszczołowska, Wiersz polski. Zarys historyczny, Wrocław 1997, p. 398.
  13. 1 2 Gasparov, M. L. (1996). Smith, G. S.; Holford-Strevens, L. (eds.). A History of European Versification . Translated by Smith, G. S.; Tarlinskaja, Marina. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 220. ISBN   0-19-815879-3. OCLC   1027190450.
  14. Mickiewicz, Adam (1852). Ballady i romanse (in Polish). Lipsk: F. A. Brockhaus. p. 10.
  15. Camões, Luís de (1572). Os Lusiadas. Lisbon: Antonio Go[n]çaluez impressor. p. 1.
  16. Camões, Luís de (1963). Bullough, Geoffrey (ed.). The Lusiads . Translated by Fanshawe, Sir Richard. London: Centaur Press. p. 59.
  17. Calderón de la Barca, Pedro (1905). Gröber, Gustav (ed.). La vida es sueño. Strasbourg: J.H.E. Heitz. pp. 13–14.
  18. Calderón de la Barca, Pedro (1873). Dramas. Translated by Mac-Carthy, Denis Florence. London: Henry S. King. p. 7.
  19. Tennyson, Alfred (1864). Enoch Arden, &c. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. p. 200.

Further reading

Italian texts

Polish texts