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ALCAICS , in See also: ancient See also: poetry, a name given to several kinds of verse, from See also: Alcaeus, their reputed inventor
.
The first kind consists of five feet, viz. a spondee or See also: 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 See also: fourth verse is a ten-syllable alcaic of the second kind
.
The following See also: strophe is of this See also: 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 See also: Greek metrical See also: art
.
In its best examples it gives an impression of wonderful vigour and spontaneity
.
See also: Tennyson has attempted to reproduce it in See also: English in his
O mighty-mouthed inventor of harmonies,
O skilled to sing of See also: time or eternity,
See also: God-gifted See also: organ-See also: voice of See also: England,
See also: Milton, a name to resound for ages
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See also: German is, however, the only See also: modern literature in which alcaics have been written with much success
.
They were introduced by Klopstock, and used by Holderlin, by Voss in his See also: translations of Horace, by A
.
See also: Kopisch and other modern German poets
.
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