In hexameter poetry, is this a good use of elision?

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Anthony Appleyard
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In hexameter poetry, is this a good use of elision?

Post by Anthony Appleyard »

In one of my occasional ventures into writing Latin poetry, the topic turned to combatting poaching by weekend scuba divers in a shellfish fishing area: the fishermen's patrol craft "e furtu cancror(um) alienor(um) // inhibet" with two elisions including a hypermeter: "stops [them] from theft of other people's crabs": as the two elided words were interrupted, so the shellfish poaching was interrupted. Is this an acceptable form? ('//' means end of line.)

I read that a space between words after 4½ feet (in a non-spondaic line) sounds awkward, but here the first elision makes sure that the first syllables of the 5th and 6th feet are both stressed.

adrianus
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Re: In hexameter poetry, is this a good use of elision?

Post by adrianus »

De hoc aliēnōrum verbo, etiamsi elisa est ultima syllaba, manet in penultimâ (scilicet -nō-) non antepenultimâ (-ē-) vis, ut mihi videtur. Nonné rectus sum?

With regard to aliēnōrum and eliding the last syllable, I imagine the spoken stress to still remain on the -nō- syllable ali-||-ēnō'r(um), not shift to the antepenultimate ali-||-ē'nōr(um). Is that not right?
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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Anthony Appleyard
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Re: In hexameter poetry, is this a good use of elision?

Post by Anthony Appleyard »

adrianus wrote:With regard to aliēnōrum and eliding the last syllable, I imagine the spoken stress to still remain on the -nō- syllable ali-||-ēnō'r(um), not shift to the antepenultimate ali-||-ē'nōr(um). Is that not right?



Uhh, yes, thanks for pointing it out.

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