ALCAICS  , in

ancient poetry, a name given to several kinds of verse, from Alcaeus, their reputed inventor . The first kind consists of five feet, viz. a spondee or iambic, an iambic, a long syllable and two dactyles; the second of two dactyles and two trochees . Besides these, which are called dactylic Alcaics, there is another, simply styled Alcaic, consisting of an epitrite, two choriambi and a bacchius; thus Cur timet flajvum Tiberim I tangere, cur [ olivum ? The Alcaic ode is composed of several strophes, each consisting of four verses, the first two of which are always eleven-syllable alcaics of the first kind; the third verse is an iambic dimeter hypercatalectic consisting of nine syllables; and the fourth verse is a ten-syllable alcaic of the second kind . The following strophe is of this species, which Horace calls Alcaei minaces camenae Non possidentem multa vocaveris Recte beatum; rectius occupat Nomen beati, qui deorum Muneribus sapienter uti . There is also a decasyllabic variety of the Alcaic metre . The Alcaic measure was one of the most splendid inventions of Greek metrical art . In its best examples it gives an impression of wonderful vigour and spontaneity . Tennyson has attempted to reproduce it in English in his O mighty-mouthed inventor of harmonies, O skilled to sing of time or eternity, God-gifted organ-voice of England, Milton, a name to resound for ages . German is, however, the only modern literature in which alcaics have been written with much success . They were introduced by Klopstock, and used by Holderlin, by Voss in his translations of Horace, by A . Kopisch and other modern German poets .