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ALCAICS

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 517 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALCAICS , in See also:

ancient See also:poetry, a name given to several kinds of See also:verse, from See also:Alcaeus, their reputed inventor. The first See also:kind consists of five feet, viz. a spondee or See also:iambic, an iambic, a See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also: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. See also:German is, however, the only See also:modern literature in which alcaics have been written with much success. They were introduced by See also:Klopstock, and used by See also:Holderlin, by See also:Voss in his See also:translations of Horace, by A. See also:Kopisch and other modern German poets.

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