Video: the poem is read twice; the second time a scanned version is included
As
a way of introducing Latin poetry, it is nice to look at something not
written by Catullus in 60BC, but by Vincentius in 2025AD! These four lines –
that were written by Vincent himself – conform to Latin poetic metre
i.e. the rhythm. Latin poetry is a lengthy and wide-ranging topic – and we will
come to it (slowly) at a later stage.
It
isn’t necessary to know the “technology” of Latin poems. You can simply listen
to them – because they are meant to be heard. Translations of poems vary
hugely; if you want to have a translation beside you then find one that is as
close as possible to the original rather than one where the translator thinks
he wrote the Aeneid and not Virgil!
If
you do want to go into how the poets created their work, you will continually
meet technical terms, sometimes known as poetic devices, and so I’ve
highlighted some important features that are common to Classical Latin poetry –
even if the poem was only written yesterday.
Below
is a scanned version of the poem:
Lāe-tūs
¦ pēr cām- ¦ pōs cŏ-mĭ-¦ te͜ ērrō
¦ cūm că-nĕ ¦ fī-dō
Ōb-scū-
¦ rūm spĕ-cŭs ¦ ēn || cēr-nĭ-mŭs ¦ ēs-sĕ prŏ- ¦ cŭl
Īn-trā-
¦ mūs dēin- ¦ de͜ īn nĕmŏ- ¦ rāle͜ ān- ¦
trūm sĭnĕ ¦ cū-rā
Īn-tŭs
Ă- ¦ rāch-nēs ¦ ēn || rē-tĭ-ă ¦ lȳm-phă
lă- ¦ tĕt
[i]
Classical Latin poetry does not rhyme.
[ii]
A line of poetry is made up of a set number of syllables, the number of
syllables varying depending on which type of metre is being used.
[iii]
A syllable is a single unit of sound where one vowel sound is
used with or without surrounding consonants:
(1)
a (2) man (3) stood (4) near (5) the (6) shore;
even though some English words have two vowels – and odd combinations of vowels
and consonants - only a single vowel sound is heard.
The
same applies to Latin; when taking a close look at a Latin poem, the division
of syllables within a word is usually marked with a hyphen: cam-pos; lae-tus
(1)
per (2) cam- (3) pos (3 syllables)
(1)
lae- (2) tus (2 syllables): /ae/ is a diphthong i.e. a single
vowel sound is pronounced and so it is one syllable
(1)
dein- (2) de (2 syllables): /ei/ is a diphthong pronounced as in
English reign
[iv]
[a]
English poetry and song lyrics mostly comprise stressed and unstressed
syllables:
Thĕ
trÓU-blĕ wĭth pÓ-ĕt ĭs hÓw dŏ yŏu knÓw ĭt’s dĕ-cÉAsed? / TrÝ thĕ
prÍEst! (Sondheim: Sweeney Todd)
[b]
Latin poetry is made up of long and short syllables (marked here
as [ ͞ ] and [ ̆
]):
Ōb-scū- ¦ rūm spĕ-cŭs ¦
There
are ways of identifying long and short syllables in a Latin poem, but, at this
stage, that is beyond the scope of this post. It’s enough to realise that a
Latin poem doesn’t necessarily ‘bounce’ along like the Sondheim song above!
[c]
This combination of long and short syllables in a Latin poem is not random;
there are patterns of long and short syllables divided into a number of ‘feet’.
I’ve used [ ¦ ] to indicate that. Therefore, Vincent’s first line is divided into six feet:
(1)
Lāe-tūs ¦ (2) pēr cām- ¦ (3) pōs cŏ-mĭ-¦ (4) te͜ ērrō
¦ (5) cūm că-nĕ ¦ (6) fī-dō
The
patterns have specific names. In this case, it is known as hexameter
(from Anc. Gk. ἑξάμετρος / hexámetros; hexa- = Anc. Gk.
six, as in hexagon).
The
purpose of this post is simply to introduce some of the basic concepts
as to how a Latin poem is constructed. Therefore, there are a couple of other
points in the poem which I don’t want to deal with in any depth at the moment:
Vincent’s
second and fourth lines, for example, are pentameters i.e. comprising five
feet
Vincent
titles the video with the word distich which is a particular style of
poetry.
You
will see a double vertical line [||]; this is known as a caesura that
marks a short ‘break’ in the middle of a line: ēn || cēr-nĭ-mŭs; it also forms part of the metre of the poem.
All
of these will be looked at when poetry is introduced at Level 3.
[d]
A common feature of Latin poetry is elision; this is when two vowels (or
diphthongs or a vowel + /m/ e.g. -um) –
one at the end of a word and one at the beginning of the next word – are pronounced rapidly together to make one
sound, but, in most instances, one of
the vowels is omitted completely when read aloud. This is not so different from
French: c’est (ce + est) and English: I’m (I + am). There are examples of that
in Vincent’s poem:
[i]
te͜ ērrō:
written as two separate vowels and looks like 2 syllables, but it
is read aloud together > t’ērrō i.e. as one syllable
[ii]
de͜ īn
nĕ-mŏ- ¦ rāle͜ ān-
¦ trūm [d’īn nĕ-mŏ- ¦ rāl’ān- ¦ trūm]
From
all of this, take away words to be aware of:
caesura
elision
feet
hexameter
long
and short syllables
metre
Take them away – and become familiar with them – because, if you do want to “explore” the caves of Latin poetry, they won’t go away.
No comments:
Post a Comment