Textkit Greek and Latin Forums

I am tempted to spread my pencil further afield from hexameter & iambics, have found a DH Lawrence WW1 poem [Service of All the Dead] that looks like it would work in Greek, mebbe even Latin too if I get on a roll. Can someone fill out some details on glyconics please... I only know what is in OCD and Goodwin's Greek Grammar.

Paul McK

glyconics consist of a choriambic base (-uu-) preceeded by a trochee, spondee or iamb (a preceding pyrrhic is quite rare) and followed by an iamb: therefore u/- u/- - u u - u - (the / means not caesura here but, rather crudely, 'or'). The initial syllable, when a true long, can be resolved into a pyrrhic, giving uuu-uu-u-. there is no regular caesura.
enjoy. i have done very little in Glyconics, only composing them, in fact, in Latin.

~D

Rightho ~D,

OCD says that they are interspersed with an occasional 'pherecratean' (??)
X X - u u - -
just to vary the tempo I assume. But what sort of poems do they suit? Happy, sad, story-telling, or what?

Renewed translating activity due to completion of Thucydides essay (returned with goodish mark), six weeks till next is due and finished writing clues to next Independent mag crossword.

P

I know poems by Anacreon made up of strophes comprising two glyconics followed by a pherecratean, which appears as a conclusive verse.

γουνοῦμαί σ’ ἐλαφηβόλε, ξανθὴ παῖ διὸς ἀγρίων δέσποιν’ )/αρτεμι θηρῶν

and so on.

auctor wrote: I only know what is in OCD and Goodwin's Greek Grammar.

Eek! Beware Goodwin's meter discussion! Especially on non-symmetrical meters (i.e., glyconics) it reflects a theory of Greek meter which it is best left peacefully dead.

I have an entire section on the aeolic meters in my introduction to meter (12 pages of PDF), pp.9-11. Horace will be your best model for the Latin use of these meters.

Thanks Will,

I'm glad that you say that about Goodwin - I have to say I was rather more confused after reading his account than beforehand! It did occur to me to look in your pages since my original posting. I think I know in which direction I'm heading now. Ditched DHL in favour of Housman - a superb poet in English, and no little classical poet.

P