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(Redirected from Elegiac couplets)
'Elegiac couplets' are a poetic form used by Greek lyric poets for a variety of themes usually of smaller scale than those of epic poetry. The ancient Romans frequently used elegiac couplets in love poetry, as in Ovid's ''Amores''. As with heroic couplets, the couplets are usually self-contained and express a complete idea.
Elegiac couplets consist of alternating lines of dactylic hexameter and pentameter: two dactyls followed by a long syllable, a caesura, then two more dactyls followed by a long syllable.
The following is a graphic representation of its scansion. Note that - is a long syllable, u a short syllable, and U either one long or two shorts:
- U | - U | - U | - U | - u u | - -
- U | - U | - || - u u | - u u | -
The form was felt by the ancients to contrast the rising action of the first verse with a falling quality in the second. The sentiment is summarized by a line from Ovid's Amores I.1.27 ''Sex mihi surgat opus numeris, in quinque residat'' - "Let my work surge in six feet, quiet down in five." The effect is further illustrated by the following English example written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
In the Hexameter rises the fountain's silvery column,
In the pentameter aye falling in melody back.
The elegiac couplet is presumed to be the oldest Greek form of epodic poetry (a form where a later verse is sung in response or comment to a previous one). Scholars theorize the form was originally used in Ionian dirges, with the name "elegy" derived from the Greek ''ε, λεγε ε, λεγε'' - "Woe, cry woe, cry!" Hence, the form was used initially for funeral songs, typically with a flute as accompaniment. Archilochus expanded use of the form to treat other themes, such as war, travel, or homespun philosophy. Between Archilochus and other imitators, the verse form became a common poetic vehicle for conveying any strong emotion.
At the end of the 7th century BCE, Mimnermus of Colophon struck on the innovation of using the verse for erotic poetry. He composed several elegies celebrating his love for the flute girl Nanno, and though fragmentary today his poetry was clearly influential in the later Roman development of the form. Propertius, to cite one example, notes ''Plus in amore valet Mimnermi versus Homero'' - "The verse of Mimnermus is stronger in love than Homer".
The form continued to be popular throughout the Greek period and treated a number of different themes. Popular leaders were writers of elegy--Solon the lawgiver of Athens composed on political and ethical subjects--and even Plato and Aristotle dabbled with the meter.
By the Hellenic period, the Alexandrian school made elegy its favorite and most highly developed form. They preferred the briefer style associated with elegy in contrast to the lengthier epic forms, and made it the singular medium for short epigrams. The most important of these writers was Callimachus, whose learned character and intricate art would have a heavy influence on the Romans.
Like all Greek forms, elegy was adapted by the Romans for their own literature. The fragments of Ennius contain a few couplets, and scattered verses attributed to Roman public figures like Cicero and Julius Caesar also survive.
But it is the elegists of the mid-to-late first century BCE who are most commonly associated with the distinctive Roman form of the elegiac couplet. Catullus, the first of these, is an invaluable link between the Alexandrine school and the subsequent elegies of Tibullus and Propertius a generation later. His collection, for example, shows a familiarity with the usual Alexandrine style of terse epigram and a wealth of mythological learning, while his 66th poem is a direct translation of Callimachus' ''Coma Berenices''. Arguably the most famous elegiac couplet in Latin is his two-line 85th poem ''Odi et Amo'':
Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris?
nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.
Gallus is another important statesman/writer of this period, one who is generally regarded by the ancients as the greatest of the elegists. Alas, other than four scant lines, all of his work has been lost.
The form reached its zenith with the collections of Tibullus, Propertius, and the elegies of Ovid. The vogue of the form in Rome at this time is seen in examples from the so-called 3rd and 4th book of Tibullus. Many poems in these books were clearly not written by Tibullus but by other hands, perhaps all part of a circle under Tibullus' patron Mesalla. Notable in this collection are the poems of Sulpicia, one of the few surviving bits of Latin literature written by a woman.
Through these poets--and in comparison with the earlier Catullus--it is possible to trace evolutionary patterns in the Roman form of the verse:
★ The form begins to be applied to new themes beyond love, loss, and the traditional "strong emotion" verse. Propertius, for example, uses it to relate aetiological or "origin" myths such as the origins of Rome (IV.1) and the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill (IV.6). Ovid's Heroides--though at first glance fictitious love letters--are described by Ovid himself as a new literary form, and can be read as character studies of famous heroines from mythology.
★ The Romans adopt the Alexandrine habit of concealing the name of their beloved in the poem with a pseudonym. Catullus' vexing Lesbia is notorious as the pseudonym of the teasing Clodia. As the form developed, this habit becomes more artificial; Tibullus' Delia and Propertius' Cynthia, while likely real people, lack sufficient detail to make them identifiable, and Ovid's Corinna is merely a literary device.
★ The poets become extremely careful in clearly separating the two halves of the pentameter. Catullus, for example, allows an elision across the caesura in 18 cases, a rare flaw in the later poets (Ovid never does this).
★ The pentameter begins to show a semi-regular "leonine" rhyme between the two halves of the verse, e.g. Tib. I.1-2, where the ''culti'' ending the first half of the pentameter rhymes with the ''soli'' closing the verse:
Divitias alius fulvo sibi congerat auro
Et teneat culti iugera multa soli,
While Catullus shows this rhyme in about 1 in 5 couplets, the later elegists use it more frequently; Propertius' poem II.34, for example, has the rhyme in nearly half its pentameters. Rhyming between adjacent lines and even in the two halves of the hexameter is also observed, more than would be expected by chance alone.
★ Unlike Catullus, later poets show a definite trend toward ending the pentameter with a two-syllable word. Propertius is especially interesting; in his first two books, he ignores this rule about as frequently as Catullus and Tibullus, but in the last two books endings other than a disyllabic word are very rare. Ovid has no exceptions to the disyllable in his Amores, and only a few proper names occur as polysyllabic endings in his later work.
★ The hexameter follows the usual rhetorical trends of the dactylic hexameter in this age. If anything, the elegists are even more interested in verbal effects like alltieration and assonance.
Although no poets wrote collections of elegies after Ovid, the verse retained its popularity as an vehicle for popular albeit occasional poetry. Elegiac verses appear, for example, in Petronius' ''Satyricon'', and Martial used it mainly for short or epigrammatical effect in his collection of ''Epigrams''.
The form retained this general if occasional popularity through the remainder of the empire; short elegies appear in Apuleius's story ''Psyche and Cupid'' and the minor writings of Ausonius. After the fall of the empire, this trend continued with various Christian writers through the Middle Ages. Venatius Fortunatus wrote some of his hymns in the meter, and even the Venerable bede dabbled in the verse. With the Renaissance, more skilled writers took on the form including John Milton, who wrote several lengthy elegies on a variety of themes.
★ Meter (poetry)
★ Ovid
★ Reading Latin Verse Aloud: Metre and Scansion
★ What is Elegy?
'Elegiac couplets' are a poetic form used by Greek lyric poets for a variety of themes usually of smaller scale than those of epic poetry. The ancient Romans frequently used elegiac couplets in love poetry, as in Ovid's ''Amores''. As with heroic couplets, the couplets are usually self-contained and express a complete idea.
Elegiac couplets consist of alternating lines of dactylic hexameter and pentameter: two dactyls followed by a long syllable, a caesura, then two more dactyls followed by a long syllable.
The following is a graphic representation of its scansion. Note that - is a long syllable, u a short syllable, and U either one long or two shorts:
- U | - U | - U | - U | - u u | - -
- U | - U | - || - u u | - u u | -
The form was felt by the ancients to contrast the rising action of the first verse with a falling quality in the second. The sentiment is summarized by a line from Ovid's Amores I.1.27 ''Sex mihi surgat opus numeris, in quinque residat'' - "Let my work surge in six feet, quiet down in five." The effect is further illustrated by the following English example written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
In the Hexameter rises the fountain's silvery column,
In the pentameter aye falling in melody back.
| Contents |
| Greek Origins |
| Roman Elegy |
| Elegy in the Augustan Age |
| Post-Augustan Writers |
| See also |
| External links |
Greek Origins
The elegiac couplet is presumed to be the oldest Greek form of epodic poetry (a form where a later verse is sung in response or comment to a previous one). Scholars theorize the form was originally used in Ionian dirges, with the name "elegy" derived from the Greek ''ε, λεγε ε, λεγε'' - "Woe, cry woe, cry!" Hence, the form was used initially for funeral songs, typically with a flute as accompaniment. Archilochus expanded use of the form to treat other themes, such as war, travel, or homespun philosophy. Between Archilochus and other imitators, the verse form became a common poetic vehicle for conveying any strong emotion.
At the end of the 7th century BCE, Mimnermus of Colophon struck on the innovation of using the verse for erotic poetry. He composed several elegies celebrating his love for the flute girl Nanno, and though fragmentary today his poetry was clearly influential in the later Roman development of the form. Propertius, to cite one example, notes ''Plus in amore valet Mimnermi versus Homero'' - "The verse of Mimnermus is stronger in love than Homer".
The form continued to be popular throughout the Greek period and treated a number of different themes. Popular leaders were writers of elegy--Solon the lawgiver of Athens composed on political and ethical subjects--and even Plato and Aristotle dabbled with the meter.
By the Hellenic period, the Alexandrian school made elegy its favorite and most highly developed form. They preferred the briefer style associated with elegy in contrast to the lengthier epic forms, and made it the singular medium for short epigrams. The most important of these writers was Callimachus, whose learned character and intricate art would have a heavy influence on the Romans.
Roman Elegy
Like all Greek forms, elegy was adapted by the Romans for their own literature. The fragments of Ennius contain a few couplets, and scattered verses attributed to Roman public figures like Cicero and Julius Caesar also survive.
But it is the elegists of the mid-to-late first century BCE who are most commonly associated with the distinctive Roman form of the elegiac couplet. Catullus, the first of these, is an invaluable link between the Alexandrine school and the subsequent elegies of Tibullus and Propertius a generation later. His collection, for example, shows a familiarity with the usual Alexandrine style of terse epigram and a wealth of mythological learning, while his 66th poem is a direct translation of Callimachus' ''Coma Berenices''. Arguably the most famous elegiac couplet in Latin is his two-line 85th poem ''Odi et Amo'':
Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris?
nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.
Gallus is another important statesman/writer of this period, one who is generally regarded by the ancients as the greatest of the elegists. Alas, other than four scant lines, all of his work has been lost.
Elegy in the Augustan Age
The form reached its zenith with the collections of Tibullus, Propertius, and the elegies of Ovid. The vogue of the form in Rome at this time is seen in examples from the so-called 3rd and 4th book of Tibullus. Many poems in these books were clearly not written by Tibullus but by other hands, perhaps all part of a circle under Tibullus' patron Mesalla. Notable in this collection are the poems of Sulpicia, one of the few surviving bits of Latin literature written by a woman.
Through these poets--and in comparison with the earlier Catullus--it is possible to trace evolutionary patterns in the Roman form of the verse:
★ The form begins to be applied to new themes beyond love, loss, and the traditional "strong emotion" verse. Propertius, for example, uses it to relate aetiological or "origin" myths such as the origins of Rome (IV.1) and the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill (IV.6). Ovid's Heroides--though at first glance fictitious love letters--are described by Ovid himself as a new literary form, and can be read as character studies of famous heroines from mythology.
★ The Romans adopt the Alexandrine habit of concealing the name of their beloved in the poem with a pseudonym. Catullus' vexing Lesbia is notorious as the pseudonym of the teasing Clodia. As the form developed, this habit becomes more artificial; Tibullus' Delia and Propertius' Cynthia, while likely real people, lack sufficient detail to make them identifiable, and Ovid's Corinna is merely a literary device.
★ The poets become extremely careful in clearly separating the two halves of the pentameter. Catullus, for example, allows an elision across the caesura in 18 cases, a rare flaw in the later poets (Ovid never does this).
★ The pentameter begins to show a semi-regular "leonine" rhyme between the two halves of the verse, e.g. Tib. I.1-2, where the ''culti'' ending the first half of the pentameter rhymes with the ''soli'' closing the verse:
Divitias alius fulvo sibi congerat auro
Et teneat culti iugera multa soli,
While Catullus shows this rhyme in about 1 in 5 couplets, the later elegists use it more frequently; Propertius' poem II.34, for example, has the rhyme in nearly half its pentameters. Rhyming between adjacent lines and even in the two halves of the hexameter is also observed, more than would be expected by chance alone.
★ Unlike Catullus, later poets show a definite trend toward ending the pentameter with a two-syllable word. Propertius is especially interesting; in his first two books, he ignores this rule about as frequently as Catullus and Tibullus, but in the last two books endings other than a disyllabic word are very rare. Ovid has no exceptions to the disyllable in his Amores, and only a few proper names occur as polysyllabic endings in his later work.
★ The hexameter follows the usual rhetorical trends of the dactylic hexameter in this age. If anything, the elegists are even more interested in verbal effects like alltieration and assonance.
Post-Augustan Writers
Although no poets wrote collections of elegies after Ovid, the verse retained its popularity as an vehicle for popular albeit occasional poetry. Elegiac verses appear, for example, in Petronius' ''Satyricon'', and Martial used it mainly for short or epigrammatical effect in his collection of ''Epigrams''.
The form retained this general if occasional popularity through the remainder of the empire; short elegies appear in Apuleius's story ''Psyche and Cupid'' and the minor writings of Ausonius. After the fall of the empire, this trend continued with various Christian writers through the Middle Ages. Venatius Fortunatus wrote some of his hymns in the meter, and even the Venerable bede dabbled in the verse. With the Renaissance, more skilled writers took on the form including John Milton, who wrote several lengthy elegies on a variety of themes.
See also
★ Meter (poetry)
★ Ovid
External links
★ Reading Latin Verse Aloud: Metre and Scansion
★ What is Elegy?
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