Aeolic verse
Encyclopedia
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.
Sappho and Alcaeus' verses differ from most other Greek lyric poetry in their metrical
construction:
Antoine Meillet
and later scholars, by comparison to Vedic meter
, have seen in these principles and in other tendencies (the sequence ...¯˘˘¯˘¯..., the alternation of blunt and pendant verses) conserved traces of Proto-Indo-European poetic practices.
In Sappho and Alcaeus, the three basic metrical groups ¯˘˘¯˘¯, ¯˘˘¯ (choriamb
) and ¯˘¯ (cretic
) figure importantly, and groups are sometimes joined (in what is probably a Greek innovation) by a link anceps. Aeolic poems may be stichic
(with all lines having the same metrical form), or composed in more elaborate stanza
s or strophe
s.
For example, an Asclepiad
may be analyzed as a glyconic
with choriambic expansion (glc, gl2c), and a glyconic with dactylic expansion produces the stichic length (×× ¯˘˘¯˘˘¯˘˘¯ ˘¯, or gl2d) in which Sappho composed the poems collected in Book II.
In this analysis, a wide variety of Aeolic verses (whether in Sappho and Alcaeus, or in later choral poetry) are analyzed as a choriambic nucleus (sometimes expanded, as just mentioned), usually preceded by anceps syllables and followed by various single-short sequences (e.g. ˘¯, ˘¯˘¯, and, by the principle of brevis in longo
, ˘¯˘¯¯, ˘¯¯, ¯), with various additional allowances to accommodate the practice of the later poets. (By also taking the cretic unit, mentioned above, into account, this analysis can also, for example, understand the third line of the Alcaic stanza—and other stanza lines as in Sappho frr. 96, 98, 99—as Aeolic in nature, and appreciate how the initial three syllables of the Sapphic hendecasyllable were not variable in Sappho's practice.)
give us a long list of names for various Aeolic lengths, to which modern scholars have added. For the most part, these names are arbitrary or even misleading, but they are widely used in scholarly writing. The following are the names for units with an unexpanded "choriambic nucleus":
edition of Sappho's works divided the poems into books mostly based on their meter, an overview of its contents is a convenient starting point for an account of the Lesbian poets' meters.
Many of the additional meters found in Sappho and Alcaeus are similar to the ones discussed above, and similarly analyzable. For example, Sappho frr. 130-131 (and the final lines of fr. 94's stanzas) are composed in a shortened version (gld) of the meter used in Book II of her poetry. However, the surviving poetry also abounds in fragments in other meters, both stanzaic and stichic, some of them more complicated or uncertain in their metrical construction. Some fragments use meters from non-Aeolic traditions (e.g. dactylic hexameter, or the Ionic meter
of Sappho fr. 134).
and Bacchylides
' 5th century BC choral poetry can largely be divided into dactylo-epitrite and "aeolic" types of composition. This later style of "aeolic" verse shows fundamental similarities to, but also several important differences from, the practice of the Aeolic poets. In common with Sappho and Alcaeus, in the aeolic odes of Pindar and Bacchylides:
These connections justify the name "Aeolic" and clearly distinguish the mode from dactylo-epitrite (which does not use consecutive anceps syllables, and which combines double-short and single-short in a single verse, but not in a single metrical group). But there are several important innovations in the "aeolic" practice of Pindar and Bacchylides:
The tragic poets of Classical Athens
continued the use of Aeolic verse (and dactylo-epitrite, with the addition of other types) for their choral odes, with additional metrical freedoms and innovations. Aeschylus
, Sophocles
, and Euripides
each went his own way in developing Aeolics.
provides an example of the Hellenistic adaptation of Aeolic poetry in his Idylls 28-31, which also imitate the Archaic Aeolic dialect. Idyll 29, a pederastic
love poem, "which is presumably an imitation of Alcaeus and opens with a quotation from him," is in the same meter as Book II of Sappho. The other three poems are composed in the Greater Asclepiad meter (like Sappho, Book III). Also in the third century BC, a hymn by Aristonous (Collectanea Alexandrina 162) is composed in glyconic-pherecratean stanzas, and Philodamus' paean
to Dionysus
(CA 167) is partly analyzable by Aeolic principles.
. Among the lyric poets, Catullus
used glyconic-pherecratean stanzas (Catullus 34, 61), the Phalaecian hendecasyllable (many compositions), the Greater Asclepiad (Catullus 30) and the Sapphic stanza (Catullus 11 and 51
, an adaptation of Sappho fr. 31
). Horace
extended and standardized the use of Aeolics in Latin, also using the Alcaic stanza, the Lesser Asclepiad, and hipponacteans. In the summing-up poem "Exegi monumentum" (Odes 3.30), Horace makes the somewhat exaggerated claim:
. The ode to Rome (Supplementum Hellenisticum 541) in Sapphic stanzas by "Melinno" (probably writing during the reign of Hadrian
) "is an isolated piece of antiquarianism."
and W.H. Auden. Poets from Swinburne
to Allen Ginsburg have used the Sapphic stanza. Hungarian poets such as Dániel Berzsenyi
and Mihály Babits
have written in Alcaics.
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
lyric poetry
Lyric poetry
Lyric poetry is a genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which were sung to the lyre. Lyric poems do not have to rhyme, and today do not need to be set to music or a beat...
referring to the distinct verse forms characteristic of the two great poets of Archaic Lesbos, Sappho
Sappho
Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
and Alcaeus, who composed in their native Aeolic dialect. These verse forms were taken up and developed by later Greek and Roman poets
Latin poetry
The history of Latin poetry can be understood as the adaptation of Greek models. The verse comedies of Plautus are the earliest Latin literature that has survived, composed around 205-184 BC, yet the start of Latin literature is conventionally dated to the first performance of a play in verse by a...
and some modern European poets.
Essential features and origin
| In this article ¯ indicates a longum Syllable weight In linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. In classical poetry, both Greek and Latin, distinctions of syllable weight were fundamental to the meter of the line.... , ˘ indicates a breve Syllable weight In linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. In classical poetry, both Greek and Latin, distinctions of syllable weight were fundamental to the meter of the line.... , and × indicates an anceps Anceps In Greek and Latin meter, an anceps syllable is a syllable in a metrical line which can be either short or long. An anceps syllable may be called "free" or "irrational" depending on the type of meter being discussed.... . |
Sappho and Alcaeus' verses differ from most other Greek lyric poetry in their metrical
Meter (poetry)
In poetry, metre 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 of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
construction:
- Verses consist of a fixed number of syllables (thus, for example, no resolutionResolution (meter)Resolution is the metrical phenomenon in classical poetry of replacing a longum with two brevia. It is generally found in Greek lyric poetry and in Greek and Roman drama, most frequently in comedy....
, contraction, or bicepsBiceps (prosody)Biceps is a point in a metrical pattern that can be filled either with one long syllable or two short syllables . It is found in the dactylic hexameter and the dactylic pentameter....
elements). - Consecutive ancepsAncepsIn Greek and Latin meter, an anceps syllable is a syllable in a metrical line which can be either short or long. An anceps syllable may be called "free" or "irrational" depending on the type of meter being discussed....
syllables may occur, especially at the beginning of the verse (where two initial anceps syllables are called the aeolic base). (This forms an exception to the principle, otherwise observed in Greek verse, that two successive unmarked elements are not permitted. Lines beginning with multiple anceps syllables are also exceptional in not being classifiable as having rising or falling rhythm.)
Antoine Meillet
Antoine Meillet
Paul Jules Antoine Meillet was one of the most important French linguists of the early 20th century. Meillet began his studies at the Sorbonne, where he was influenced by Michel Bréal, Ferdinand de Saussure, and the members of the Année Sociologique. In 1890 he was part of a research trip to the...
and later scholars, by comparison to Vedic meter
Vedic meter
The verses of the Vedas have a variety of different meters. They are divided by number of padas in a verse, and by the number of syllables in a pada. Chandas , the study of Vedic meter, is one of the six Vedanga disciplines, or "organs of the vedas".*: 3 padas of 8 syllables-Principles:The main...
, have seen in these principles and in other tendencies (the sequence ...¯˘˘¯˘¯..., the alternation of blunt and pendant verses) conserved traces of Proto-Indo-European poetic practices.
In Sappho and Alcaeus, the three basic metrical groups ¯˘˘¯˘¯, ¯˘˘¯ (choriamb
Choriamb
In Greek and Latin poetry, a choriamb is a metron consisting of four syllables in the pattern long-short-short-long , that is, a trochee alternating with an iamb. Choriambs are one of the two basic metra that do not occur in spoken verse, as distinguished from true lyric or sung verse...
) and ¯˘¯ (cretic
Cretic
A cretic is a metrical foot containing three syllables: long, short, long. In Greek poetry, the cretic was usually a form of paeonic or aeolic verse. However, any line mixing iambs and trochees could employ a cretic foot as a transition...
) figure importantly, and groups are sometimes joined (in what is probably a Greek innovation) by a link anceps. Aeolic poems may be stichic
Stichic
Poetry made up of lines of the same meter and length, not broken up into stanzas or verses, is called stichic....
(with all lines having the same metrical form), or composed in more elaborate stanza
Stanza
In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...
s or strophe
Strophe
A strophe forms the first part of the ode in Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the antistrophe and epode. In its original Greek setting, "strophe, antistrophe and epode were a kind of stanza framed only for the music," as John Milton wrote in the preface to Samson Agonistes, with the strophe...
s.
Choriambic nucleus and expansion
One analysis of Aeolic verses' various forms identifies a choriambic nucleus (¯˘˘¯), which is sometimes subject to:- dactylic expansion (some number of dactylDactylDactyl may refer to:* Dactyl , a creature in Greek mythology* Dactyl , a metrical foot consisting of one long syllable and two short* Dactyl , the small natural satellite orbiting the asteroid Ida...
s preceding the choriamb, or "prolongation" of the pattern that alternates long elements with double-short elements); - choriambic expansion ("juxtaposition" of additional choriambs).
For example, an Asclepiad
Asclepiad (poetry)
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....
may be analyzed as a glyconic
Glyconic
Glyconic, , describes a form of meter in classical Greek and Latin poetry. The glyconic line is the most basic form of Aeolic verse, and it is often combined with others....
with choriambic expansion (glc, gl2c), and a glyconic with dactylic expansion produces the stichic length (×× ¯˘˘¯˘˘¯˘˘¯ ˘¯, or gl2d) in which Sappho composed the poems collected in Book II.
In this analysis, a wide variety of Aeolic verses (whether in Sappho and Alcaeus, or in later choral poetry) are analyzed as a choriambic nucleus (sometimes expanded, as just mentioned), usually preceded by anceps syllables and followed by various single-short sequences (e.g. ˘¯, ˘¯˘¯, and, by the principle of brevis in longo
Brevis in longo
In Greek and Latin meter, a short syllable at the end of a line can be counted as long; this phenomenon is known as brevis in longo.The term comes from Latin, and means "a short [syllable] in place of a long [syllable]." Brevis in longo is possible in any classical meter that requires a long...
, ˘¯˘¯¯, ˘¯¯, ¯), with various additional allowances to accommodate the practice of the later poets. (By also taking the cretic unit, mentioned above, into account, this analysis can also, for example, understand the third line of the Alcaic stanza—and other stanza lines as in Sappho frr. 96, 98, 99—as Aeolic in nature, and appreciate how the initial three syllables of the Sapphic hendecasyllable were not variable in Sappho's practice.)
Names of basic lengths
Ancient metricians such as HephaestionHephaestion (grammarian)
Hephaestion was a grammarian of Alexandria who flourished in the age of the Antonines. He was the author of a manual of Greek metres, which is most valuable as the only complete treatise on the subject that has been preserved. The concluding chapter discusses the various kinds of poetical...
give us a long list of names for various Aeolic lengths, to which modern scholars have added. For the most part, these names are arbitrary or even misleading, but they are widely used in scholarly writing. The following are the names for units with an unexpanded "choriambic nucleus":
| verse-end | verse-begin | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| ×× (aeolic base) | × ("acephalous line Acephalous line An acephalous or headless line is a line in a poem which does not conform to its accepted metre, due to the first syllable's omission. Acephalous lines are usually deliberate variations in scansion, but this is not always obvious. Famous poems to use such a technique include A.E. Housman's To an... ") |
no anceps syllables | |
| ˘¯¯ | hipponactean (×ׯ˘˘¯˘¯¯) | hagesichorean (ׯ˘˘¯˘¯¯, ^hipp) | aristophanean (¯˘˘¯˘¯¯) |
| ˘¯ | glyconic Glyconic Glyconic, , describes a form of meter in classical Greek and Latin poetry. The glyconic line is the most basic form of Aeolic verse, and it is often combined with others.... (×ׯ˘˘¯˘¯) |
telesillean (ׯ˘˘¯˘¯, ^gl) | dodrans Dodrans The dodrans was an Ancient Roman bronze coin produced during the Roman Republic.The dodrans, valued at three-fourth of an as , was produced only twice:... (¯˘˘¯˘¯) |
| ¯ | pherecratean (×ׯ˘˘¯¯) | reizianum (ׯ˘˘¯¯, ^pher) | adonean (¯˘˘¯¯) |
The meters of the Sapphic corpus
Because the AlexandrianLibrary of Alexandria
The Royal Library of Alexandria, or Ancient Library of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt, was the largest and most significant great library of the ancient world. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship from its construction in the...
edition of Sappho's works divided the poems into books mostly based on their meter, an overview of its contents is a convenient starting point for an account of the Lesbian poets' meters.
| Book I (fragments 1-42) | Sapphic stanza Sapphic stanza The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho, is an Aeolic verse form spanning four lines .... |
| Book II (frr. 43-52) | ×ׯ˘˘¯˘˘¯˘˘¯˘¯ (gl2d) |
| Book III (frr. 53-57) | Greater Asclepiad Asclepiad (poetry) 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.... (gl2c), marked off in distichs |
| Book IV (frr. 58-91) | ׯ˘˘¯¯˘˘¯¯˘˘¯˘¯¯ (^hipp2c, called aiolikon by Hephaestion), marked off in distichs |
| Book V (frr. 92-101) | probably consisting of poems in various three-line stanzas |
| Book VI | contents unknown |
| Book VII (fr. 102) | featuring the verse ˘¯˘¯˘¯¯˘˘¯˘¯˘¯¯ (not usually analyzed by "Aeolic" principles) |
| Book VIII (fr. 103) | a short book, the fragmentary evidence for which is "nearly but not quite compatible with" ¯˘˘¯¯˘˘¯¯˘˘¯˘¯¯ (aristoph2c) |
| Book IX (frr. 104-117) | epithalamia in other meters, including dactylic hexameter Dactylic hexameter Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme. It is traditionally associated with the quantitative meter of classical epic poetry in both Greek and Latin, and was consequently considered to be the Grand Style of classical poetry... , pher2d, pherd, aristoph2c, and less easily summarized lengths |
| unclassified fragments (frr. 118-213) | various meters |
Sappho and Alcaeus' meters
Sappho and Alcaeus' poetic practice had in common, not just the general principles sketched above, but many specific verse forms. For example, the Sapphic stanza, which represents such a large part of Sappho's surviving poetry, is also well represented in Alcaeus' work (e.g. Alcaeus frr. 34, 42, 45, 308b, 362). Alcaeus frr. 38a and 141 use the same meter as Book II of Sappho, and Alcaeus frr. 340-349 the Greater Asclepiad as in Book III. One notable form is the Alcaic stanza (e.g. Alcaeus frr. 6, 129, 325-339), but this too is found in both poets (Sappho frr. 137-138).Many of the additional meters found in Sappho and Alcaeus are similar to the ones discussed above, and similarly analyzable. For example, Sappho frr. 130-131 (and the final lines of fr. 94's stanzas) are composed in a shortened version (gld) of the meter used in Book II of her poetry. However, the surviving poetry also abounds in fragments in other meters, both stanzaic and stichic, some of them more complicated or uncertain in their metrical construction. Some fragments use meters from non-Aeolic traditions (e.g. dactylic hexameter, or the Ionic meter
Ionic meter
The ionic is a four-syllable metrical unit of light-light-heavy-heavy that occurs in ancient Greek and Latin poetry. Like the choriamb, in classical quantitative verse the ionic never appears in passages meant to be spoken rather than sung...
of Sappho fr. 134).
Choral Aeolics
The versification of PindarPindar
Pindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich...
and Bacchylides
Bacchylides
Bacchylides was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets which included his uncle Simonides. The elegance and polished style of his lyrics have been a commonplace of Bacchylidean scholarship since at least Longinus...
' 5th century BC choral poetry can largely be divided into dactylo-epitrite and "aeolic" types of composition. This later style of "aeolic" verse shows fundamental similarities to, but also several important differences from, the practice of the Aeolic poets. In common with Sappho and Alcaeus, in the aeolic odes of Pindar and Bacchylides:
- Two or more consecutive anceps syllables may occur at the beginning or middle of a verse (see e.g. Pindar, Nemean 4).
- There are many metrical sequences formed by prolongation, including both double-short (as in the dactylic expansion discussed above) and single-short units together (mostly double-short before single-short, e.g. ¯˘˘¯˘¯, but also the reverse, e.g. ¯˘¯˘˘¯, which is uncharacteristic of Sappho and Alcaeus).
These connections justify the name "Aeolic" and clearly distinguish the mode from dactylo-epitrite (which does not use consecutive anceps syllables, and which combines double-short and single-short in a single verse, but not in a single metrical group). But there are several important innovations in the "aeolic" practice of Pindar and Bacchylides:
- Verses are no longer isosyllabic (e.g., Pindar may use ˘˘ in place of ¯ by resolution).
- Anceps syllables are mostly realized the same way in a given location (and the aeolic base is more limited in its possible realizations).
- Verse forms and sequences are more varied, so that description with reference to the earlier practice must speak of expansions, shortenings, acephalic verses, cholosis, etc.
The tragic poets of Classical Athens
Classical Athens
The city of Athens during the classical period of Ancient Greece was a notable polis of Attica, Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Hippias...
continued the use of Aeolic verse (and dactylo-epitrite, with the addition of other types) for their choral odes, with additional metrical freedoms and innovations. Aeschylus
Aeschylus
Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, and is often described as the father of tragedy. His name derives from the Greek word aiskhos , meaning "shame"...
, Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
, and Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
each went his own way in developing Aeolics.
Hellenistic Aeolics
TheocritusTheocritus
Theocritus , the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC.-Life:Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from his writings. We must, however, handle these with some caution, since some of the poems commonly attributed to him have little claim to...
provides an example of the Hellenistic adaptation of Aeolic poetry in his Idylls 28-31, which also imitate the Archaic Aeolic dialect. Idyll 29, a pederastic
Pederasty in ancient Greece
Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged relationship between an adult and a younger male usually in his teens. It was characteristic of the Archaic and Classical periods...
love poem, "which is presumably an imitation of Alcaeus and opens with a quotation from him," is in the same meter as Book II of Sappho. The other three poems are composed in the Greater Asclepiad meter (like Sappho, Book III). Also in the third century BC, a hymn by Aristonous (Collectanea Alexandrina 162) is composed in glyconic-pherecratean stanzas, and Philodamus' paean
Paean
A paean is a song or lyric poem expressing triumph or thanksgiving. In classical antiquity, it is usually performed by a chorus, but some examples seem intended for an individual voice...
to Dionysus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
(CA 167) is partly analyzable by Aeolic principles.
Latin Aeolics
Aeolic forms were included in the general Roman habit of using Greek forms in Latin poetryLatin poetry
The history of Latin poetry can be understood as the adaptation of Greek models. The verse comedies of Plautus are the earliest Latin literature that has survived, composed around 205-184 BC, yet the start of Latin literature is conventionally dated to the first performance of a play in verse by a...
. Among the lyric poets, Catullus
Catullus
Gaius Valerius Catullus was a Latin poet of the Republican period. His surviving works are still read widely, and continue to influence poetry and other forms of art.-Biography:...
used glyconic-pherecratean stanzas (Catullus 34, 61), the Phalaecian hendecasyllable (many compositions), the Greater Asclepiad (Catullus 30) and the Sapphic stanza (Catullus 11 and 51
Catullus 51
Catullus 51 is a poem by the Roman famous love poet Gaius Valerius Catullus . It is an adaptation of one of Sappho's fragmentary lyric poems, Sappho 31. Catullus replaces Sappho's beloved with his own beloved Lesbia. Unlike the majority of Catullus' poems, the meter of this poem is the sapphic...
, an adaptation of Sappho fr. 31
Sappho 31
Sappho 31 is a poem by Ancient Greek poet Sappho of Lesbos. It is also known as phainetai moi after the opening words of its first line, or Lobel-Page 31, Voigt 31, Gallavotti 2, Diehl 2, Bergk 2, after the location of the poem in various editions containing the collected works of Sappho...
). Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
extended and standardized the use of Aeolics in Latin, also using the Alcaic stanza, the Lesser Asclepiad, and hipponacteans. In the summing-up poem "Exegi monumentum" (Odes 3.30), Horace makes the somewhat exaggerated claim:
In Imperial Greek poetry
In later Greek poetry, the phalaecian was widely used by poets including writers of epigramEpigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising statement. Derived from the epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
. The ode to Rome (Supplementum Hellenisticum 541) in Sapphic stanzas by "Melinno" (probably writing during the reign of Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
) "is an isolated piece of antiquarianism."
In post-Classical poetry
Especially through the influence of Horace, Aeolic forms have sometimes been employed in post-Classical poetry. For example, Asclepiads have been used by SidneyPhilip Sidney
Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier and soldier, and is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan Age...
and W.H. Auden. Poets from Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...
to Allen Ginsburg have used the Sapphic stanza. Hungarian poets such as Dániel Berzsenyi
Dániel Berzsenyi
Dániel Berzsenyi - February 24, 1836 in Nikla) was a Hungarian poet.Berzsenyi was one of the most contradictory poets of Hungarian literature. He lived the life of a farmer, and wished to be close to the events of Hungarian literature. This contradiction, which he believed he could solve, made him...
and Mihály Babits
Mihály Babits
Mihály Babits was a Hungarian poet, writer and translator.- Biography :...
have written in Alcaics.
External links
- Introduction to Greek Meter, by William S. Annis
- A Comparative Survey of Pindar's Meters, by Gregory NagyGregory NagyGregory Nagy , born in Budapest Hungary in 1942, is an American professor of Classics at Harvard University, specializing in Homer and archaic Greek poetry. Nagy is known for extending Milman Parry and Albert Lord's theories about the oral composition-in-performance of the Iliad and Odyssey...
- Review of Kiichiro Itsumi, Pindaric Metre: "The Other Half", a recent book on Pindar's choral Aeolics