Resolution is the metrical phenomenon in poetry of replacing a normally long syllable in the meter with two short syllables. It is often found in iambic and trochaic meters, and also in anapestic, dochmiac and sometimes in cretic, bacchiac, and ionic meters. In iambic and trochaic meters, either the first or the second half of the metrical foot can be resolved, or sometimes both.
The long syllables of dactylic meter are not usually resolved, and resolution is also not found in the last element of a line.
The opposite of resolution is contraction, which is the substitution of one long syllable where the metrical pattern has a double short.[1] Such a position, which is normally two short syllables, as in a dactylic hexameter, is known as a biceps element.
It should not be confused with a biceps, which is a point in a meter which can equally be two shorts or a long, as is found in the dactylic hexameter. The biceps is freely able to be two shorts or a long, while resolution, particularly in tragedy, can only occur within very restricted situations. Two resolved longa in the same line in Greek is unusual, for instance, while a biceps that is two shorts can freely be followed by another biceps that is two shorts. Also, when two shorts are substituted for a long, they are almost always within the same word-unit.
"Whose sacred name would I pray to when I hear it?"
(Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 41)
Here the resolved pair is the word ὄνομ', so the resolution stays within the same word-unit. It is also very rare, even in comedy, for a resolution to be found in the last two syllables of a polysyllabic word, such as ἐπίσκοπος "overseer" in the line below:[2]
ἐπίσκοπος ἥκω δεῦρο τῷ κυάμῳ λαχὼν
epískopos hḗkō deûro tôi kuámōi lakhṑn
| u – uu – | – – u – | uu – u – |
"I have come here as an overseer, having been appointed by lot"
(Aristophanes, Birds 1022)
The above example also illustrates another feature of resolution in ancient Greek, namely that in iambic metre, a short element may also be resolved. So here, in the first metron (x – u –), the third element may not be a long syllable, but it may be resolved into two short syllables. But the penultimate element in an iambic trimeter is always short and never resolved.
Resolution is quite frequent in the iambic and trochaic metres commonly used in Roman comedy and can be found both in strong (long) elements and in weak (anceps) elements. In comedy there is no restriction on the number of resolutions that can occur in a line; there can even be two in the same foot, e.g. egofateor or quiatibi and so on.[3] However, in iambic trimeters of the classical period resolution is much rarer. In golden age writers, such as Horace, it is usually found only in the long elements of the line, but in silver age writers, such as Seneca, it can be found in the anceps elements also, especially in the fifth foot.[4]
An example of a trochaic septenarius from comedy with several resolutions is the following:
quíd faci(am)? únd(e) ego núnc tam súbit(o) huic / árgent(um) ínveniám misér?[5]
| – uu – uu | – – uu – || – – – uu | – u – |
"What am I to do? Where can I now so suddenly find money for this man, wretched that I am?"
Certain restrictions apply, however. One restriction, known as Ritschl's law, is that the two resolved syllables should belong to the same word, unless the first word is a monosyllable. Thus faciam or cōnsilium or quid agitur? are all acceptable, but captus amōre would be unusual. (But captus amōre is acceptable in dactylic verse, e.g. Ovid Met. 6.465.)
Another restriction of iambo-trochaic verse, called the Hermann-Lachman law, is that the two short syllables of a resolution should not be the last two syllables of a word; thus phrases like omnibusillīs or omnibus amīcis are almost never found in iambic-trochaic metres (although omnibus illīs is acceptable in dactylic or anapaestic verse). This rule does not apply so strictly in Greek, where a tribrach-shaped word like ἄδικον can sometimes occur with the second and third syllable in a single element.[6]
A possible reason for these restrictions is that in Plautus and Terence's verse iambic and trochaic poetry there is a strong tendency for the word accent to coincide with the beginning of a long elements in the verse, especially in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th feet of an iambic senarius.[7] A word with three short syllables like facere is always placed so that the first syllable coincides with a long element. A dactylic word like omnibus does sometimes occur, but only in the first foot of a line, where metrical licence is sometimes allowed.
Wherever there is resolution in Roman comedy (but not in later Latin), it is often possible also to find a phenomenon called "iambic shortening" or brevis brevians, whereby the second syllable of a resolved pair counts as short even though it is theoretically long, e.g. recēns nātum (with short -cēns) or volō scīre (with shortened -lo).
In dactylic verse, such as the dactylic hexameter, resolution is not usually allowed, although in two or three places Ennius resolves the first element of a line.[8] In anapaestic verse either the first or the second half of the foot may be resolved, so that an anapaestic foot can be u u –, – –, – u u, or (in comedy but not usually in more serious poetry) u u u u.[9]
Another meter in which resolution is very common is the galliambic, used in Catullus poem 63 (see Galliambic verse).
In this tradition, if a stressed syllable comprises a short root vowel followed by only one consonant followed by an unstressed vowel (i.e. '(-)CVCV(-)) these two syllables were in most circumstances counted as only one syllable.[10]
For example, in lines 224b-28 of the Old English poem Beowulf, the following emboldened syllables resolve, counting as only one metrical syllable each:
Þanon up hraðe Wedera lēode on wang stigon, sǣwudu sǣldon; syrcan hrysedon, gūðgewǣdo. Gode þancedon þæs þe him ȳþlāde ēaðe wurdon.
From there, upwards, swiftly the people of the Weders stepped onto land, tied up sea-wood; they shook their mail-coats, battle-raiment. They thanked God that for them the sea-routes turned out easy.
Iambic pentameter
Resolution in the iambic pentameter is rare, but it does sometimes occur. When resolution occurs in a weak position in the line, there are two light unstressed syllables between the stressed ones, often within a polysyllabic word, as in the following examples from Shakespeare:[11]
This fórtificátion, géntlemen, sháll we sée it? (Othello 3.2.5)
And áre upón the Méditerránean flóat (Tempest 1.2.234)
The múltitúdinous séas incárnadíne (Macbeth 2.2.59)
A resolved weak position can also be a pair of light unstressed non-lexical words:
I' the name of fame and honour, which dies i' the search (Cymbeline 3.3.51)
Occasionally, however, a strong position can be resolved into a strong and weak syllable, provided that the strong syllable is a light one, as in the word many below:
Cóme to one márk, as mánv ways méet in one tówn (Henry V 1.2.208)
Modern English verse
Resolution is also found in modern English verse, for example in the nursery rhyme:
Here the rhythm consists of four trochaic feet, the last one catalectic (i.e. missing the final syllable). In the third foot, the two short syllables "sat on" correspond to a single long syllable in the other feet. In the music which accompanies the poem, Humpty is a crotchet (half note) and quaver (eighth note), while sat on is a pair of quavers (eighth notes), taking up the same time as the syllable Hump.
In these lines of John Masefield there are again four main stresses. The first two feet each contain two resolutions:
DírtyBritish | cóasterwith a | sált-caked | smóke-stack]
Búttingthrough the | Chánnelin the | mád March | dáys[13]
In the lines from T. S. Eliot below, there are likewise four main stresses, but with a more complex pattern of resolutions, reflecting the rhythms of ordinary speech:
Whén the train | stárts and the | pássengers are | séttled
to | frúit, peri-| ódicals and | búsiness | létters[14]
Related Research Articles
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.
An anapaest is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. In classical quantitative meters it consists of two short syllables followed by a long one; in accentual stress meters it consists of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable. It may be seen as a reversed dactyl. This word comes from the Greek ἀνάπαιστος, anápaistos, literally "struck back" and in a poetic context "a dactyl reversed".
An iamb or iambus is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. Originally the term referred to one of the feet of the quantitative meter of classical Greek prosody: a short syllable followed by a long syllable. This terminology was adopted in the description of accentual-syllabic verse in English, where it refers to a foot comprising an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Thus a Latin word like íbī, because of its short-long rhythm, is considered by Latin scholars to be an iamb, but because it has a stress on the first syllable, in modern linguistics it is considered to be a trochee.
Choliambic verse, also known as limping iambs or scazons or halting iambic, is a form of meter in poetry. It is found in both Greek and Latin poetry in the classical period. Choliambic verse is sometimes called scazon, or "lame iambic", because it brings the reader down on the wrong "foot" by reversing the stresses of the last few beats. It was originally pioneered by the Greek lyric poet Hipponax, who wrote "lame trochaics" as well as "lame iambics".
A catalectic line is a metrically incomplete line of verse, lacking a syllable at the end or ending with an incomplete foot. One form of catalexis is headlessness, where the unstressed syllable is dropped from the beginning of the line.
A tribrach is a metrical foot used in formal poetry and Greek and Latin verse. In quantitative meter, it consists of three short syllables; in accentual-syllabic verse, the tribrach consists of a run of three short syllables substituted for a trochee.
The Iambic trimeter is a meter of poetry consisting of three iambic units per line. In ancient Greek poetry and Latin poetry, an iambic trimeter is a quantitative meter, in which a line consists of three iambic metra. Each metron consists of the pattern | x – u – |, where "–" represents a long syllable, "u" a short one, and "x" an anceps. Resolution was common, especially in the first two metra of the line, so that any long or anceps syllable except the last could be replaced by two short syllables, making a total of 13 or more syllables. It is the most common meter used for the spoken parts of Ancient Greek tragedy, comedy, and satyr plays. It is also common in iambus or 'blame poetry', although it is not the only meter for that genre.
This is a glossary of poetry.
In Greek and Latin metre, brevis in longo is a short syllable at the end of a line that is counted as long. The term is short for (syllaba) brevis in (elemento) longo, meaning "a short [syllable] in place of a long [element]." Although the phenomenon itself has been known since ancient times, the phrase is said to have been invented by the classical scholar Paul Maas.
Porson's Law, or Porson's Bridge, is a metrical law that applies to iambic trimeter, the main spoken metre of Greek tragedy. It does not apply to iambic trimeter in Greek comedy. It was formulated by Richard Porson in his critical edition of Euripides' Hecuba in 1802.
Biceps is a point in a metrical pattern where a pair of short syllables can freely be replaced by a long one. In Greek and Latin poetry, it is found in the dactylic hexameter and the first half of a dactylic pentameter, and also in anapaestic metres.
A hymn metre indicates the number of syllables for the lines in each stanza of a hymn. This provides a means of marrying the hymn's text with an appropriate hymn tune for singing.
In ancient Greek and Latin literature, the trochaic septenarius is a form of ancient poetic metre first used in 7th century BC Greek literature. It was one of the two most common metres of Roman comedy of the early 1st century BC and was also used for the marching songs sung by soldiers at Caesar's victory parade. After a period when it was little used, it is found again in the Pervigilium Veneris, and taken up again as a metre for Christian hymns. The same metre, with stress-rhythm replacing quantitative metre, has continued to be used, especially for hymns and anthems, right up to the present day.
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.
A lekythion or lecythion, in classical Greek and Latin poetry, is a metric pattern (colon) defined by a sequence of seven alternating long and short syllables at the end of a verse. In classical grammatical terminology it can be described as a trochaic dimeter catalectic, i.e. a combination of two groups of two trochees each, with the second of these groups lacking its final syllable; or as a trochaic hepthemimer, i.e. a trochaic sequence of seven half-feet. A lekythion can appear in several different metric contexts in different types of poetry, either alone as a verse or as the second of two cola following a caesura. A frequent type of occurrence in Greek drama is in lines of iambic trimeter, the most frequent metre used in spoken dialogue, i.e. lines of the type x — u — | x — u — | x — u —. These lines may have a metric caesura after the first five syllables, with the remaining line thus resulting in a lekythion group.
Prosody is the theory and practice of versification.
Roman comedy is mainly represented by two playwrights, Plautus and Terence. The works of other Latin playwrights such as Livius Andronicus, Naevius, Ennius, and Caecilius Statius are now lost except for a few lines quoted in other authors. 20 plays of Plautus survive complete, and 6 of Terence.
Brevis brevians, also known as iambic shortening or correptio iambica, is a metrical feature of early Latin verse, especially Plautus and Terence, in which a pair of syllables which are theoretically short + long can be scanned as a pair of short syllables. The plural is breves breviantes.
A metron, , plural metra, is a repeating section, 3 to 6 syllables long, of a poetic metre. The word is particularly used in reference to ancient Greek. According to a definition by Paul Maas, usually a metron consists of two long elements and up to two other elements which can be short, anceps or biceps.
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