The principles of Latin grammar; comprising the ... - Essan.org

§163 PROSODY.—METRE. 3196. Those feet, then, accordiDg to the ancients, were called isochronous^which were capable of being divided into parts that were equal in time,so that a short syllable should correspond to a short ; and a long to along, or to two short ; thus, in Iambic aud Trochaic verse.Iambus ^ — Trochee —Tribrach vTribrach w wIn Dactylic and Anapaestic ;Dactyl —Spondee -thus,Anapaest^ ^Spondee —853.—But feet which cannot be divided in this manner, are not isochronous,though they have the same time ;thus, the Iambus and Trochee,though equal in time, cannot be divided so as to have the correspondingparts of equal length ;thus,Iambus,^Trochee, —854.—Hence these feet are not interchangeable, or isochronous ; andfor this reason a Trochee is never admitted into Iambic verse nor anIambus into Trochaic. The same is true of the Spondee, ( ) andAmphibrach ( ^ — ^ ), and of the Amphibrach with the Dactyl orAnapaest855.—§ 163. OF METRE.1. Metre, in its general sense, means an arrangement of syllables andfeet in verse, according to certain rules ; and, in this sense, applies, notonly to an entire verse, but to part of a verse, or to any number of verses.A metre, in a specific sense, means a combination of two feet (sometimescalled a syzygy), and sometimes one foot only.The distinction between rhythm and metre is this :—the former refersto the time only, in regard tc which, two short syllables are equivalent toone long ; the latter refers both to the time and the order of the syllables.The rhythm of an anapaest and dactyl is the 'same; the metre different.The term rhythm, is also understood in a more comprehensive sense, andis applied to the harmonious construction and enunciation of feet and wordsin connection ; thus, a line has rhythm when it contains any number ofmetres of equal time, without regard to their order. Metre requires acertain number of metres, and these arranged in a certain oi der. Thus,in this line,Panditur interea domus omnipotentisOlympi,there is both rhythm (as it contains six metres of equal value in respectof time) and metre, as these metres are arranged according to the canor