olim erat puella ex nantucket!

[phil]

That's about my limit with English poetry, but I'd like to be a bit better with Latin poetry. I've already ascertained that it doesn't rhyme, it's all to do with meter. When Wheelock states that a particulare piece is in elegaic couplet, what does that mean? I've looked in my Latin grammar and dictionary, but I don't get it. Does anyone know of a Latin Poetry for Dummies?

Cheers,
Phil

[benissimus]

I don't know of a "Latin Poetry for Dummies" but Allen & Greenough do have a section on prosody. Basically, an elegiac couplet is a pairing (=couplet) of one line of hexameter followed by a line of pentameter. You can have several couplets in a single elegiac poem, so long as the hexameter alternates with pentameter. Wikipedia has an article about this that should give you a good idea of how it works: here.

[galen697]

Just a quick note- it should be "a Nantucket" rather than "ex"; ex connotates moving in a direction out or away from, while a/ab connotates origin/source, which is what this phrase is.

[adrianus]

Salve galen 697
It's OK, surely, to use "ex" or "ê" to mean the place one comes from (when you are outside that place—no, anytime, really, to say where you come from).
Nonnè "ex" seu "ê" praepositio cum loco nativo (et subjectum extra fines,—minimè, sic semper dicere licet, si unde venire dicas) probè adhibita est?

[adrianus]

Here's proof/Ecce indicium

B. Transf.
1. To indicate the country, and, in gen., the place from or out of which any person or thing comes, from: ex Aethiopia est usque haec, Ter. Eun. 3, 2, 18 : quod erat ex eodem municipio, Cic. Clu. 17, 49 ; cf. id. ib. 5, 11.--Freq. without a verb: Philocrates ex Alide, Plaut. Capt. 3, 2, 10 : ex Aethiopia ancillula, Ter. Eun. 1, 2, 85 Ruhnk.: negotiator ex Africa, Cic. Verr. 2, 1, 5 : Epicurei e Graecia, id. N. D. 1, 21, 58 : Q. Junius ex Hispania quidam, Caes. B. G. 5, 27 : ex India elephanti, Liv. 35, 32 : civis Romanus e conventu Panhormitano, Cic. Verr. 2, 5, 54 Zumpt; cf. id. ib. 2, 5, 59 fin.: meretrix e proxumo, Plaut. As. 1, 1, 38 ; cf. id. Aul. 2, 4, 11: puer ex aula (sc. regis barbari), Hor. C. 1, 29, 7 : ex spelunca saxum, Cic. Fat. 3, 6 : saxum ex capitolio, Liv. 35, 21, 6 : ex equo cadere, Cic. Clu. 32, 175 ; cf. id. Fat. 3, 6; Auct. B. Hisp. 15 et saep.--

[phil]

Thanks guys - I did't know whether to use ex or ab - I just tossed a coin.
I'll try reading that poem (in elegaic couplet) using Benissimus's advice. Cheers.

[galen697]

Here's proof/Ecce indicium

B. Transf.
1. To indicate the country, and, in gen., the place from or out of which any person or thing comes, from: ex Aethiopia est usque haec, Ter. Eun. 3, 2, 18 : quod erat ex eodem municipio, Cic. Clu. 17, 49 ; cf. id. ib. 5, 11.--Freq. without a verb: Philocrates ex Alide, Plaut. Capt. 3, 2, 10 : ex Aethiopia ancillula, Ter. Eun. 1, 2, 85 Ruhnk.: negotiator ex Africa, Cic. Verr. 2, 1, 5 : Epicurei e Graecia, id. N. D. 1, 21, 58 : Q. Junius ex Hispania quidam, Caes. B. G. 5, 27 : ex India elephanti, Liv. 35, 32 : civis Romanus e conventu Panhormitano, Cic. Verr. 2, 5, 54 Zumpt; cf. id. ib. 2, 5, 59 fin.: meretrix e proxumo, Plaut. As. 1, 1, 38 ; cf. id. Aul. 2, 4, 11: puer ex aula (sc. regis barbari), Hor. C. 1, 29, 7 : ex spelunca saxum, Cic. Fat. 3, 6 : saxum ex capitolio, Liv. 35, 21, 6 : ex equo cadere, Cic. Clu. 32, 175 ; cf. id. Fat. 3, 6; Auct. B. Hisp. 15 et saep.--

Shows I've been teaching out of Latin for Americans too long...

[Lucus Eques]

Yes, e/ex is appropriate.

And I agree; I quite refuse to teach with Latin for Americans, despite the insistence of the administration. Awful textbook... actually worse than Wheelock!

[cantator]

For what it's worth I've known the poem to begin so :

Nantucketensis ridebat...

Which takes care of any prepositional concerns.