Question: What is an Example of an Elegiac Couplet?
Answer: An elegiac couplet is a pair of sequential lines in poetry in which the first line is written in dactylic hexameter and the second line in dactylic pentameter. The Roman poet Ennius introduced the elegiac couplet to Latin poetry for themes less lofty than that of epic, for which dactylic hexameter was suited.
The typical meter of an elegiac couplet can be represented as:
¯ ˘ ˘ | ¯ ˘ ˘ | ¯ ˘ ˘ | ¯ ˘ ˘ | ¯ ˘ ˘ | ¯ xThe first two lines of Ovid's Amores I, which is written in elegiac couplets, can be scanned as follows, where bolding marks the long syllables, the non-bold are short or anceps, dashes separate syllables, spaces separate words, and the ends of feet are marked by vertical lines:¯ ˘ ˘ | ¯ ˘ ˘ | ¯ | ¯ ˘ ˘ | ¯ ˘ ˘ | ¯
Ar-ma gra- | vī nu-me- | rō vi-o- | len-ta-que | bel-la pa- | rā-bam
ē-de-re, |mā-te-ri- | ā | con-ve-ni- | en-te mo- |dīs.
Greek and Latin Poetry Meter FAQ Index:
- What Is an Anceps?
- What's the Difference Between Caesura and Diaeresis?
- What's an Example of a Caesura?
- What Is Dactylic Hexameter?
- What Is Dactylic Pentameter?
- What's an Example of an Elegiac Couplet?
- What Is an Ictus?
- What is Meter?
- Which Meters Does Latin Poetry Use?
- What Is a Metron?
- What is Prosody?
- How Do You Scan a Line of Latin Poetry?
