The elegiac couplet or elegaic distich is a poetic form used by Greek lyric poets for a variety of themes usually of smaller scale than the epic . Roman poets , particularly Catullus , Propertius , Tibullus , and Ovid , adopted the same form in Latin many years later. As with the English heroic couplet , each pair of lines usually makes sense on its own, while forming part of a larger work.
26-567: The Tristia ("Sad things" or "Sorrows") is a collection of poems written in elegiac couplets by the Augustan poet Ovid during the first three years following his banishment from Rome to Tomis on the Black Sea in AD 8. Despite five books in which he bewails his fate copiously, the immediate cause of Augustus ' banishment of the most acclaimed living Latin poet to Pontus remains a mystery. In addition to
52-445: A double-reed wind instrument . Archilochus expanded use of the form to treat other themes, such as war, travel, and homespun philosophy. Between Archilochus and other imitators, the verse form became a common poetic vehicle for conveying any strong emotion. At the end of the 7th century BCE, Mimnermus of Colophon struck on the innovation of using the verse for erotic poetry. He composed several elegies celebrating his love for
78-437: A circle under Tibullus' patron Messalla . Notable in this collection are the poems of Sulpicia , thought to be the only surviving work by a Classical Latin female poet. The six elegiac poems of Lygdamus in the collection are thought by some to be an anonymous early work by Ovid, though other scholars attribute them to an imitator of Ovid who may have lived in a much later period. Through these poets—and in comparison with
104-435: A direct translation of Callimachus' Lock of Berenice . His 85th poem is famous: Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris? Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior. I hate and I love. Why do I do this, perhaps you ask? I know not, but I feel it happen and am tormented. To read it correctly it is necessary to take account of the three elisions : Cornelius Gallus , an important statesman of this period,
130-537: A single poem. Taking this division into account, book 1 has 13 poems, book 3 has 15, book 4 has 11, book 5 has 16. Book 2, as noted above, is one single poem. Peter Green wrote in a translation of Ovid's exile poems that the Tristia "[has] not, on the whole, had a good press from posterity." Gordon Williams referred to the work as "mostly a pale reflection of the genius that he had been." However, Ralph J. Hexter wrote in 1995 that literary critics were then "beginning to give
156-488: A slightly strange term for this meter, as it seems to have six parts, but the reason is that each half of the line has two and a half feet, the two together thus making up five. Each half-line is called a hemiepes (half-epic), as resembling half a line of epic dactylic hexameter. The pentameter is notable for its very tight structure, with substitutions allowed only in the first two feet. It seldom, if ever, occurs except in elegiac couplets. This poetry -related article
182-437: A war theme, apparently for a Spartan audience. Theognis of Megara vented himself in couplets as an embittered aristocrat in a time of social change. Popular leaders were writers of elegies— Solon the lawgiver of Athens composed on political and ethical subjects—and even Plato and Aristotle dabbled with the meter. A famous example of an elegiac couplet is the epitaph composed by Simonides of Ceos which Herodotus says
208-524: Is a graphic representation of its scansion : The form was felt by the ancients to contrast the rising action of the first verse with a falling quality in the second. The sentiment is summarized in a line from Ovid's Amores I.1.27 — Sex mihi surgat opus numeris, in quinque residat — "Let my work rise in six steps, fall back in five." The effect is illustrated by Friedrich Schiller 's couplet translated into English by Samuel Taylor Coleridge as: and by Alfred, Lord Tennyson , as: The elegiac couplet
234-531: Is presumed to be the oldest Greek form of epodic poetry (a form where a later verse is sung in response or comment to a previous one). Scholars, who even in the past did not know who created it, theorize the form was originally used in Ionian dirges , with the name "elegy" derived from the Greek ε, λεγε ε, λεγε —"Woe, cry woe, cry!" Hence, the form was used initially for funeral songs, typically accompanied by an aulos ,
260-509: The Tristia , Ovid wrote another collection of elegiac epistles on his exile, the Epistulae ex Ponto , as well as a 642-line curse poem called Ibis , directed against the unnamed enemy who had apparently caused his downfall. He spent several years in the outpost of Tomis and died in AD 17 or 18 without ever returning to Rome. The Tristia was once viewed unfavorably in Ovid's oeuvre but has become
286-422: The "error" is never made clear, although some speculate it may have had something to do with Ovid's overhearing (or rather discovery) of the adulterous nature of Augustus' daughter, Julia . He defends his work and his life with equal vigor, appealing to the many poets who had written on the same themes as he—among them Anacreon , Sappho , Catullus and even Homer . The plea was unsuccessful; Ovid would live out
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#1732844353379312-710: The Renaissance, more skilled writers interested in the revival of Roman culture attempted to recapture the spirit of the Augustan writers. The Dutch Latinist Johannes Secundus , for example, included Catullus-inspired love elegies in his Liber Basiorum , while the English poet John Milton wrote several lengthy elegies throughout his career. This trend continued down through the Recent Latin writers, whose close study of their Augustan counterparts reflects their general attempts to apply
338-413: The cultural and literary forms of the ancient world to contemporary themes. Dactylic pentameter The dactylic pentameter is a verse-form which, in classical Greek and Latin poetry , follows a dactylic hexameter to make up an elegiac couplet . It consists of two halves, each consisting of two dactyls, for which spondees can be substituted in the first half only, followed by a longum . Thus
364-475: The departing book against the dangers of its destination, was probably written last. The second book consists of a single 578-line poem. It takes the form of a plea to Augustus to end the unhappy exile brought about by his carmen et error (poem and error). The poem which had angered the Emperor was apparently Ovid's Ars Amatoria , a light-hearted instruction manual on how to pick up women; the nature of
390-570: The earlier Catullus—it is possible to trace specific characteristics and evolutionary patterns in the Roman form of the verse: Although no classical poet wrote collections of love elegies after Ovid, the verse retained its popularity as a vehicle for popular occasional poetry . Elegiac verses appear, for example, in Petronius ' Satyricon , and Martial 's Epigrams uses it for many witty stand-alone couplets and for longer pieces. The trend continues through
416-643: The educated classes for gravestone epitaphs; many such epitaphs can be found in European cathedrals. De tribus puellis is an example of a Latin fabliau , a genre of comedy which employed elegiac couplets in imitation of Ovid. The medieval theorist John of Garland wrote that "all comedy is elegy, but the reverse is not true." Medieval Latin had a developed comedic genre known as elegiac comedy . Sometimes narrative, sometimes dramatic , it deviated from ancient practice because, as Ian Thompson writes, "no ancient drama would ever have been written in elegiacs." With
442-489: The exile elegies a fresh look." A number of scholars have since viewed the collection favorably. It is listed among Ovid's major works by author David Malouf and scholar Matthew Woodcock. In Matthew Bunson 's Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire , it is called "a powerful plea for justice." Elegiac couplets Each couplet consists of a dactylic hexameter verse followed by a dactylic pentameter verse. The following
468-418: The flute girl Nanno , and though fragmentary today, his poetry was clearly influential in the later Roman development of the form. Propertius , to cite one example, notes Plus in amore valet Mimnermi versus Homero —"The verse of Mimnermus is stronger in love than Homer ". The form continued to be popular throughout the Greek period and treated a number of different themes. Tyrtaeus composed elegies on
494-417: The line most normally looks as follows (note that "—" marks a long syllable, "∪" a short syllable and " ∪ ∪ " either one long or two shorts): As in all classical verse-forms, the phenomenon of brevis in longo is observed, so the last syllable can actually be short or long. Also, the line has a diaeresis , where a word boundary must occur, after the first half-line, here marked ||. "Pentameter" may seem
520-482: The mid-to-late first century BCE who are most commonly associated with the distinctive Roman form of the elegiac couplet. Catullus, the first of these, is an invaluable link between the Alexandrine school and the subsequent elegies of Tibullus , Propertius and Ovid . He shows a familiarity with the usual Alexandrine style of terse epigram and a wealth of mythological learning, as in his 66th poem, Coma Berenices ,
546-1062: The remainder of his years in exile among the Thracian Getae . The last three books of the Tristia grow grimmer as their author ages, heavy with the knowledge that he will never return to his home. At one point he even composes his epitaph : I who lie here, sweet Ovid, poet of tender passions, fell victim to my own sharp wit. Passer-by, if you've ever been in love, don't grudge me the traditional prayer: 'May Ovid's bones lie soft!' The last poem of book 5 addresses Ovid's wife, praising her loyalty throughout his years of exile and wishing that she be remembered for as long as his books are read. The number of poems in Tristia differs slightly in different editions. For example, in Hall's 1995 Teubner edition, poems 1.5, 1.9, 3.4, 4.4, 5.2 and 5.7 are each split into two separate poems, which in most manuscripts each appear to be
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#1732844353379572-545: The remainder of the empire; short elegies appear in Apuleius 's story of Cupid and Psyche and in the minor writings of Ausonius . After the fall of the empire, one writer who produced elegiac verse was Maximianus . Various Christian writers also adopted the form; Venantius Fortunatus wrote some of his hymns in the meter, while later Alcuin and the Venerable Bede dabbled in the verse. The form also remained popular among
598-462: The singular medium for short epigrams . The founder of this school was Philitas of Cos . He was eclipsed only by the school's most admired exponent, Callimachus ; their learned character and intricate art would have a heavy influence on the Romans. Like many Greek forms, elegy was adapted by the Romans for their own literature. The fragments of Ennius contain a few couplets, but it is the elegists of
624-545: The subject of scholarly interest in recent years. The first of the five books was written during Ovid's journey into exile. It addresses his grieving wife, his friends — both the faithful and the false — and his past works, especially the Metamorphoses . Ovid describes his arduous travel to the furthest edge of the empire, giving him a chance to draw parallels with the exiles of Aeneas and Odysseus (Ulysses) and excuse his work's failings. The introductory poem, which cautions
650-542: Was also regarded by the ancients as a great elegist, but, except for a few lines, his work has been lost. The form reached its zenith with the collections of Tibullus and Propertius and several collections of Ovid (the Amores , Ars Amatoria , Heroides , Tristia , and Epistulae ex Ponto ). The vogue of elegy during this time is seen in the so-called 3rd and 4th books of Tibullus. Many poems in these books were clearly not written by Tibullus but by others, perhaps part of
676-514: Was inscribed on a stone to commemorate those who died at the battle of Thermopylae in 490 BC: Cicero translates it as follows ( Tusc. Disp. 1.42.101), also using an elegiac couplet: By the Hellenistic period , the Library of Alexandria made elegy its favorite and most highly developed form. They preferred the briefer style associated with elegy in contrast to the lengthier epic forms, and made it
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