Sapphic Verse

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heinzs
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Sapphic Verse

Post by heinzs » Thu Apr 12, 2012 4:41 pm

I borrowed this article from AllPoetry.com. Writteh by Tammy Knott

Normative accentual-syllabic meters have nothing whatever to do with quantitative accentual-syllabics. The meters of quantitative verse, which are Classical Greek in origin, are prescribed. For instance, in the Greek form called Sapphics the Sapphic line is composed of two trochees, a dactyl, and two trochees, in that order, although certain substitutions are allowed at prescribed places.

The Sapphic stanza is made up of three such lines plus a line called an adonic, which is a dactyl and a trochee, in that order
It is an unrhymed (blank) quatrain.

There are exactly eleven syllables in each Sapphic line (because the three-syllable dactyl), and it contains five verse feet, so it is a pentameter line. While it is true that trochees predominate, since their positions in the line are prescribed, they are not normative. Likewise the adonic contains five syllables and two verse feet -- it is dimeter, but not normative. No verse foot even predominates in the adonic line.

Sapphic Stanzas in Falling Measures


All our gardens, summer has fallen out of
Rime in crystals, webs, and the dawn in voices
Calling on the westerly winds of changing
Weathers and climates.

Now the frost -- in tentative webs and crystals
Falling from the dawning to all our gardens
Vined and gourded -- has rimed itself with
Calls of the fliers

Gliding on the westerlies. Changing weathers
Send our northern sojourners on their searches
After other climates, for now that autumn
Falls in a rime of

Crystal webs on all of our summer gardens
Vined and gourded, riming itself with sounding
Calls of fliers gliding upon the western
Winds in these changing

Weathers, dawns will shatter in all our climates:
South, the flocks of sojourners fall and settle
Out of early light in a hoarfrost made of
Springtime and summer.


In this poem the technique of prolepsis (q.v.) has also been used.
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bags123
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Re: Sapphic Verse

Post by bags123 » Fri Apr 13, 2012 11:36 am

Seems to be a very complicated form. Too complicated for me anyway. :mrgreen:
I prefer to keep an open mind,....but not so much that my brains fall out.- Carl Sagan
Your brain is like an umbrella. It only works when it's open- Someone Smart


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heinzs
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Re: Sapphic Verse

Post by heinzs » Fri Apr 13, 2012 1:40 pm

Basically it's just metering of 4 lines, 3 x 11 and 1 x 5.

Meter pattern:

/- /- /-- /- /-
/- /- /-- /- /-
/- /- /-- /- /-
/-- /-

If you can write a sonnet, you can meter... lol. Your sonnets are always impeccable.

:-)
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bags123
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Re: Sapphic Verse

Post by bags123 » Sat Apr 14, 2012 2:27 am

:oops:
I prefer to keep an open mind,....but not so much that my brains fall out.- Carl Sagan
Your brain is like an umbrella. It only works when it's open- Someone Smart


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