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There are three kinds of cæsura, the syllabic, the trochaic, and the monosyllabic.

The syllabic cæsura is that in which the first part of the divided foot consists of the last syllable of a word; as,

Sylvēstrēm těnŭī mūsām mědi tāris ǎ vēnā.

The syllabic appears to be the principal cæsura in Latin versification, and but few harmonious lines can be found, in which it is not introduced. If the ancients did not consider it indispensably necessary, it is evident that they seldom ventured to write a verse without it.

The syllabic cæsura may take place in a heroic verse at the triemimeris, penthemimeris, hephthemimeris, and sometimes at the enneemimeris; as,

Si căni mūs sỹl|vās, sỹlvæ sint | consulě | dignæ.
Illě lă tus nivě um molli fultus hyǎ cinthō.

The ancient grammarians generally divided every line into half feet, and from this division the preceding names have been introduced. The triemimeris is that portion of a verse which contains its three first half feet; the penthemimeris is the part which contains five half feet; the hephthemimeris that which contains seven; and the enneemimeris that which comprises nine half feet.

The trochaic cæsura is that in which the first part of the divided foot consists either of a long and short syllable remaining at the end of a word, or of an entire word comprised of one long and one short syllable; as,

Fōrtūnātus ĕt | illě, dělōs qui | nōvit ǎ|grēstēs.

Although one syllabic cæsura, at least, generally occurs in every hexameter verse, yet the trochaic has nearly the same metrical effect, and often appears to be the principal cæsura in the verse; as,

Fată vocant côn|ditquè nă|tantĭă | lūmĭnă | sōmnūs.

In Horace and Virgil, about twenty lines may be found, in which the trochaic cæsura only occurs, and which are still not deficient in harmony; as,

Spārgēns | humidă | mēllă să|pōrĭfĕ|rümque pă|pāvēr.

The trochaic cæsura may take place in either of the first five feet of a verse, but two successive trochaics must not occur in the second and third, or in the third and fourth feet; as,

Tālĭă vōce rě fért, ō tērquè quă tērquě běļātī.
Armă procul currusque virum mirātur i nānēs.
Albă ligūstră că dūnt, vāc|ciniă | nīgră lĕ|gūntūr.

The monosyllabic cæsura is that in which the first syllable of the divided foot is a monosyllable; as,

Hic vir hic | ēst tibi | quēm prō|mitti | sæpius | aūdīs.

The preceding is one of the few lines in which no cæsura but the monosyllabic occurs: the metrical effect of this cæsura is by no means so great as that of the syllabic or trochaic, but many instances may be found, in which it appears to be the principal cæsura in the

verse.

A cæsura is not indispensably necessary in every foot of a verse. Those lines, in which it most frequently occurs, generally appear to be the most poetical, but, for the sake of that variety without which the most harmonious arrangement of words would soon become tedious, the cæsura is often omitted in one or more of the feet, and its situation is frequently varied.

In the first foot of a verse, the cæsura may generally be omitted; as,

Pastores ŏvilum těně rōs de pellĕrě | fœtūs.

Pauperis et tugu|ri con|gēstūm | cēspitě | culmēn.

In the second foot, the cæsura is often omitted; but when this omission takes place, the word which begins the foot is generally of sufficient length to complete it, and to leave a cæsural syllable in the next foot; as,

Squāměă | cōnvōl|vēns sūb|lātō | pēctorě | tērgā.

The frequent recurrence of the verb nescio as a dactyle, and of the prepositions inter and intra as spondees, forming the second foot, appears on the first view to be inconsistent with the preceding rule, but it is in reality quite agreeable with it. It has been clearly ascertained that the preposition and its case were frequently pronounced with one accent, as one word; and there is reason to suppose that nescio was often connected in a similar manner with the word which followed it; thus the words inter se were pronounced, and consequently regarded in versification, as though they were written interse, and nescio quis as though written nescioquis. A similar connexion is not unusual in English words; thus some body is pronounced somebody, no body, nobody; can not, cannot.

The cæsura is not so frequently omitted at the penthemimeris; as it is in the other feet, and when it is omitted in the third, it always occurs in the fourth, and generally in the second foot when this omission of the cæsura at the penthemimeris takes place, the third foot generally consists of the two or three first syllables of a word, which is finished in the next foot; as,

Jússă mo|ri quæ | sōrtī¦tūs nōn | pērtŭlīt | úllōs

In the fourth foot, the cæsura is not necessary, if there is one at the penthemimeris; as,

Pinguis et ingrā te prěmě rētur | caseus | ūrbī.

The syllabic and monosyllabic cæsuras are seldom introduced after the fourth foot, but the trochaic often occurs at the enneemimeris, and is, in most instances, conducive to the harmony of the line; as,

Sæpě lě vi somnum suā dēbit în īre su surrō.

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Hinc alta sub rūpe că net fron❘dātor ǎd | aurās. When there is but one cæsura in a verse, it is generally in the third foot, sometimes in the fourth, but never in the second; as,

Quem měă | carminibus měrů issēt | fistulă | caprum.

In a pentameter verse, a syllabic cæsura generally takes place at the penthemimeris, and a trochaic in the foot preceding the final syllable in the second hemistich or half verse; as,

Nec quererer tar dōs | īre relictă diles.

Nil mihi rescri|bās | attămen | ipsě vě|ni.

There is sometimes a monosyllabic cæsura at the penthemimeris of a pentameter, when the preceding word is a monosyllable; as,

Māgnă tălmen spēs | ēst | in bonitātě děli.

The trochaic cæsura is sometimes neglected in the foot preceding the final syllable of a pentameter, and the verse is concluded by a word of four or more syllables; as,

Lis est cum för ma | magnă pudicitiæ.

The syllabic cæsura sometimes lengthens a short syllable; as,

Pēctoribus inhi|āns spi|räntiă | consulit | extā.

EXERCISES.

The exercises which follow consist of lines to which the preceding observations on the casura are to be applied, and which may be formed into hexameter or pentameter verses, by a change of the position of one word in each line.

1. Ipse dei clypeus terrâ cùm ima tollitur,

Manè rubet; rubet terrâque, cùm conditur imâ.

2. En, proles antiqua redit; virtus concordia,
Cumque fide pietas cervice alta vagantur.
3. Sol fugit, et removent subeuntia cœlum nubila,
Et effusis, gruvis decidit imber, aquis.

4. Quòd si quis monitis aures tardas adverterit,
Heu, referet quanto mea verba dolore!
5. Arte laboratæ puppes vincuntur ab æquore.
Tu tua brachia plùs remis posse putes?
6. Interea colat pax arva; pax candida primùm
Duxit sub juga curva araturos boves.
Nitent pace bidens vomerque; at tristia duri

Militis situs in tenebris occupat arma.

7. Non domus et fundus, non acervus æris et auri
Deduxit ægroto domini corpore febres,

Non animo curas. Oportet valeat possessor,
Si uti comportatis rebus bene cogitat.

ARRANGEMENT OF WORDS.

The principal rules for the arrangement of words in Latin prose are applicable also to the composition of verse; but the language of poetry admits of a much greater variety of inversion than the language of prose, and consequently of a more frequent deviation from the general laws of position.

An adjective is generally placed in poetry before one or more words, which intervene between it and its substantive; it is sometimes found immediately after the noun to which it relates, and sometimes immediately before it; and it occasionally occurs in other situations; as,

Dumosa pendere procul de rupe videbo.

Carmina nulla canam; non, me pascente, capellæ,
Florentem cytisum et salices carpetis amaras.

When two adjectives are introduced in the same verse, they are most commonly placed together in the beginning of the line; as,

Agrestem tenui meditabor arundine musam.

When an adjective is peculiarly emphatic, it is elegantly placed at a considerable distance after its substantive, and sometimes in the beginning of the following line; as

Vox quoque per lucos vulgo exaudita silentes
Ingens, et simulacra modis pallentia miris.

Prepositions are often placed, in poetry, after the noun which they govern, and are sometimes separated from the words with which they are compounded, and placed in a different part of the verse; as,

Spemque metumque inter dubii seu vivere credant.

Ter conatus ibi collo dare brachia circum.

The compounds quicunque, quisnam, priusquam, with a few other compound words, are sometimes divided by the figure tmesis; as,

Qui te cunque manent isto certamine casus.

Although each of the first four feet in a hexameter verse may be either a dactyle or a spondee, yet the greatest harmony generally results from a judicious intermixture of both these kinds of feet. This variety, however, is often neglected, and sometimes with an expressive and striking effect. It may in general be observed that lightness, rapidity or confusion may be expressed the most forcibly by dactyles, and slowness, grief or dignity by spondees; as,

Radit iter liquidum, celeres neque commovet alas.
Cara deûm soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum.

A sentence is most commonly completed in every distich, or two lines of pentameter or elegiac poetry, but the elegance of hexameters is increased, when neither a sentence nor the clause of a sentence is finished with the verse, and when each line, through several successive verses, is begun with one or more words immediately connected in sense with the preceding line. When one word only is thus carried on to the next verse, it is in most instances either a dactyle, or a polysyllable of sufficient length to complete the first foot, and leave a cæsural syllable in the second; it is seldom or never a monosyllable only, and, unless the word is remarkably emphatic, it is not often a spondee.

A monosyllable is seldom found at the end of a hexameter or pentameter verse, unless it is elided, or preceded by another monosyllable; as,

Sicut erat magni genibus procumbere non est.
Littoribus nostris anchora pacta tua est.

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