olim erat puella ex nantucket!

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phil
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olim erat puella ex nantucket!

Post by 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

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benissimus
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Re: olim erat puella ex nantucket!

Post by 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.
flebile nescio quid queritur lyra, flebile lingua murmurat exanimis, respondent flebile ripae

galen697
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Re: olim erat puella ex nantucket!

Post by 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.

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Re: olim erat puella ex nantucket!

Post by 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?
Last edited by adrianus on Wed Apr 08, 2009 4:22 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

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Re: olim erat puella ex nantucket!

Post by adrianus »

Here's proof/Ecce indicium
Lewis and Short on ex or ē (ex always before vowels, and elsewh. more freq. than e; e. g. in Cic. Rep. wrote: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.--
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

phil
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Re: olim erat puella ex nantucket!

Post by 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
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Re: olim erat puella ex nantucket!

Post by galen697 »

adrianus wrote:Here's proof/Ecce indicium
Lewis and Short on ex or ē (ex always before vowels, and elsewh. more freq. than e; e. g. in Cic. Rep. wrote: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...

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Re: olim erat puella ex nantucket!

Post by 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!
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Re: olim erat puella ex nantucket!

Post by cantator »

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

Nantucketensis ridebat...

Which takes care of any prepositional concerns. :)
Similis sum folio de quo ludunt venti.

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