I. IN PROSODY
In Cl. prosody (q.v.), a term used to refer to (1) any rhythmic sequence which is whole and complete in itself—i.e. capable of constituting an entire poem, but also of being used as one element alongside others in some higher-order rhythmic structure; or (2) any sequence separated from what precedes and follows by a break in synapheia some sort of pause. Form (1) is thus what modern metrists would call a verse paragraph (q.v.) or a poetic sequence ending in closure (q.v.), and seems a much narrower category than (2). The latter includes not only stanzas and their major subdivisions, in stanzaic verse, but the individual lines in stichic verse, as well as sequences such as the pentameter (q.v.) in the elegiac distich (q.v.) and a number of even shorter lyric segments which, unlike stichic units such as hexameter and trimeter (qq.v.), are never found as isolated, independent poetic utterances. The nature of the pauses to which such breaks in synapheia correspond and the reasons for their distribution within a composition are imperfectly understood: reinforcing closure is obviously one purpose, but probably not the only one. Caution in the use, and interp. of the term “p.” is therefore in order. Dale distinguishes (1) and (2) as “major” and “minor” ps. Rossi as “p.” and “verse.” But not all metrists are so careful.
II. IN RHETORIC
The term “p.” was taken over into rhet. from prosody for discussion of prose style. Cicero credits Thrasymachus with the introduction of poetic rhythms into prose, Gorgias with the devel. of the figures or schemes, and Isocrates with combining the two, so that a rhetorical p. came to have both metrical and schematic form.
Aristotle differentiates between “periodic” or “rounded” style and nonperiodic or “continuous,” the latter the more sophisticated form. He defines the p. in both structural (logical) and rhythmical terms, as a sentence “which has a beginning and end in itself, and a size which can be seen as a whole.” Periodic style is pleasing because “the hearer thinks always he has a grip on something, because there is always a sense of completion,” and comprehensible “because it is easily remembered; this is because the periodic style has number. The p. must be completed also with the sense. The p. may be either composed in cola or simple. A sentence in cola is one which is complete, has subdivisions, and is easily pronounced in a breath” (tr. Fowler). The end of the p. thus completes at once the sense and the metrical figure, but more the former than the latter, apparently; Aristotle recommends marking the beginning and end with a distinct metron such as the paean, but he discourages extensive use—even the paean he thinks unobtrusive—and none of his examples uses paeans at both ends.
Aristotle permits only two cola per period—this too came from metrics—perhaps because he emphasizes structures of antithesis, but later writers such as Demetrius quite reasonably allow more, and Aristotle allows periods of only one colon, denied by most later writers. The crucial point, however, is that good style is rhythmic, and that these rhythms flow either continuously or in periods, segments that are short enough to be perceived as a whole, complete themselves in sense, and are marked rhythmically as distinct segments. It is this segmenting and shaping which allows auditors to perceive structure. As Theophrastus puts it, one can count falling drops of water, but a flowing stream cannot be measured.
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