Men rolling huge stones. Big animals settling to sleep. A monotonous song. Evening coming solemnly on. For transition from dactyls to spondees, or vice versa. Describe Chariots scrambling at the start and then settling to A stream running down hill, then along the plain, THE DIFFERENTIATION OF THE PARTS OF THE HEXAMETER 224. The principle of the Latin hexameter is to differentiate the two hemistichs, yet in such a way that there is likeness in the difference. As a rule the best hexameter is that in which the two parts are nearly equal without actually being equal, and in which in spite of differentiation the unity of the verse is preserved. Thus at the beginning a spondaic word is avoided because it militates against the ending, which is spondaic. In the matter of caesuras and diaeresis a third trochee caesura approaches the equalisation of the hemistichs too closely to let the line be acceptable in Latin: there is only a short unaccented anacrusis preceding the second hemistich to prevent equality. The simultaneous use of a 1 troch. and 2 troch. caesura has the effect of making the first two feet resemble the close of a verse (e.g. noctis agebat equos), and is therefore to be avoided. The third foot diaeresis (especially with a spondaic word) or a pause after third foot is very rare, because thus the verse is split into two equal halves. As to endings.-The end (i.e. two last feet) has agreement between verse stress and word accent, whereas the strife between these two is purposely maintained throughout the middle of the verse. The stereotyped classical endings owe their existence to the fact that otherwise the strong caesura in fifth or sixth feet would make the ending resemble the middle of the line. HOW TO SET ABOUT THE TRANSLATION OF A PASSAGE *225. Read the English several times. 1. In so doing catch the general spirit and style, and search in your memory for a similar passage in Virgil on which to model your composition. 2. Note remarkable rhythms, pauses, alliterations, emphatic words, phrases which lend themselves to translation by hendiadys or apposition, chances for descriptive metre, intentional archaisms, etc., with a view to correct translation into Virgilian style. Read or recall a passage of some thirty lines with a view to unconscious imitation of your model. 3. Then, and not till this is done, begin to think about details of vocabulary, jotting down as many alternatives as possible. 4. Finally, consider the exigencies of metre, using suitable forms and devices, but do not allow metrical necessities to dictate to you pauses, caesuras, and the general scheme of the passage. What processes I and 2 have prescribed must not be allowed to be brushed aside because of difficulties of scansion. HOW TO BEGIN AN ORIGINAL POEM 226. Do not invoke the Muses, but try one of the following methods of beginning : (i.) Give a short exposition of the main heads of the subject in the form of indirect questions depending on expediam, referam, canam, etc. Cf. G. i. 1–5; A. vi. 756– 759, speech of Anchises; A. vii. 37-40. This form suits philosophical and didactic poems generally; e.g. HORTUS ANGLIACUS Quae cura Angliacos tandem exornaverit hortos Redditur, etc. (ii.) A short and quick description of places and circumstances connected with the subject— Forte sub arguta, etc. E. vii. 1-5. Cf. also A. iii. 1-3, Milton, In Quintum Novembris, and T. S. Evans, Damon and Thyrsis. This method is according to the precept of Horace, 'Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem,' and is especially adapted for descriptive and historical subjects; eg. MONTES PYRENAEI Gallorum campos inter, vicinia regna, Europae extremos ubi claudit Iberia fines Milton in Epitaphium Damonis (1-10) addresses the Muses, and combines (i.) and (ii.). (iii.) An abrupt breaking into the subject by means of a tu quoque, ergo, or some similar word, as if you had been thinking of the subject, and had begun to write in the middle of your thoughts; cf. A. vii. 1. This mode follows Horace's precept of hurrying the reader in medias res-Haud secus ac notas. It will suit almost all kinds of subjects. Milton, in his Ode to Mansus, begins Haec quoque, Manse, tua meditantur carmina laudi For pauses to be used in opening see above (p. 62). EXERCISES A DEMONSTRATION (Which will take about an hour to work out in class) Apollo and Mnemosyne Thus with half-shut suffuséd eyes (185 1) he stood (8), Moved in these vales (187) invisible till now (23)? In cool mid forest (185 and 13). Surely I have traced These grassy Keats, Hyperion, iii. 44. 1 The numbers refer to sections. |