Trochaic septenarius
It was one of the two most common metres of Roman comedy of the early 1st century BC and was also used for the marching songs sung by soldiers at Caesar's victory parade.
[5] The name septenarius, meaning "of seven (feet)", is first used by Cicero, who after quoting some lines of a speech of Hector's ghost from Pacuvius's tragedy Iliona comments "I don't know why he is afraid, when he is pouring out such fine septenarii to the sound of the tibiae.
[13] Another medieval writer who discussed the metre is Alberic of Monte Cassino, an 11th-century scholar and monk, who called it the decapentecus rithmus, referring to the fact that in his day it had exactly 15 syllables.
[18] In Aeschylus's tragedy, the Persians, of 472 BC, Xerxes' father King Darius rises from the dead and talks to his wife Atossa in trochaic tetrameters.
[20] The basic shape of the line is therefore: | – x – x | – x – x || – x – x | – u – | As in Greek, often a long or anceps element (except immediately before the end of the verse or hemistich) is resolved into two short syllables, as with mulier and melior in the first quotation below.
The second line above consists mostly of spondees (– –) instead of trochees (– u), but as in most septenarii, the word accents are arranged so that the 2nd, 6th and 10th positions, where in Greek a short syllable would be placed, if they are long, are unaccented (Meyer's law).
An example is the following:[25] hunc labōrem / sūmās, laudem // quī tib(i) ac fruc/tum ferāt: percrepā pug/nam Popīlī,// facta Cornē/lī cane...tibi porr(ō) istaec / rēs idcircō (e)st // cordī, quod rē/r(e) ūtilem.
Like the early Latin septenarius it uses long syllables in the anceps positions; but it has a strong break in sense between the two halves of the line:[30] Urbānī, servāt(e) uxōrēs: // moechum calv(um) addūcimus.
The word accents partly follow the metre, but in the first metron there is often a clash: αὐέρυσαν inquit poēta,// sīc et αὐτάρ corripit: Εὔπολιν, πεύκην et εὔνουν // aut poēt(am) Εὐριπίδην; syllabās prīmās necesse (e)st // ōre raptim prōmere; tempus at duplum manēbit, // nihil obest correptio.
AU tamen capére vidētur // saepe prōductum sonum, "auspicēs" cum dīc(o) et "aurum", // sīve Graecus αὔριον.
A famous example of the metre, but with a very different mood, is the Pervigilium Veneris ("Vigil of Venus"), of uncertain date but possibly 4th century AD.
| – u – – | – u – – || – u – u | – u – | | – u – u | – u – – || – u – – | – u – | | – u – – | – u – – || – u – – | – u – | | – u – – | uu u – u || – u – u | – u – | | – u – – | – u – – || – u – – | – u – | "The goddess herself has ordered the nymphs to go into the myrtle grove; Her son is going as companion to the girls; but it will be hard to believe that Love is on holiday if he carries his weapons!
One of his surviving poems begins as follows: amnis ībat / inter arva // valle fūsus / frīgidā, lūce rīdēns / calculōrum, // flōre pictus / herbidō.
caerulās su/perne laurūs // et virecta / myrtea lēniter mō/tābat aura // blandiente / sībilō; subtus autem / molle grāmen // flōre pulcrō / crēverat et crocō so/lum rubēbat // et lūcēbat / līliīs tum nemus frā/grābat omne // vīolārum / spīritū.
| – u – u | – u – u || – u – – | – u – | | – u – – | – u – – || – u – u | – u – | | – u – u | – u – – || – u – u | – u – | | – u – – | – u – u || – u – u | – u – | | – u – – | – u – – || – u – – | – u – | | – u – u | – u – u || – – – – | – u – | | – u – – | – u – u || – u – – | – u – | "A stream was going through the fields, flowing down a cool valley, laughing with the gleam of pebbles, decorated with grassy flowers; overhead, with soothing whisper, a breeze was gently stirring the dark-green laurels and the myrtle leaves; while underfoot, soft grass had grown with beautiful flowers; the earth was red with saffron and was bright with lilies; and all the wood was fragrant with the perfume of violets."
In both of these hymns, the metre more or less conforms to the early Latin pattern, but like the popular verse quoted above, the lines are arranged in four sections in such a way that the word accents exactly follow the rhythm.
[13] It is thought that he may have been the author of the hymn which begins as follows:[23] Appārēbunt / ante summum // saeculōrum / iūdicem Ēnoch magnus / et Helīas // quondam raptus / in polum | – – – – | – u – – || – u – – | – u – | | – – – u | – u – – || – – – – | – u – | "Before the Highest Judge of the Ages will appear Enoch the Great and Elijah, who was once taken up into heaven."
However, there is usually a word accent on positions 7 and 13: Audite, om/nes amántes // Deum, sancta / méritaViri in Chris/to beáti // Patricii E/píscopi:Quomodo bo/num ob áctum // simulatur / ángelis,Perfectamque / propter vítam // aequatur A/póstolis.
"Listen, all you who love God, the holy meritsOf the man in Christ, the blessed bishop Patrick:How, on account of his good actions, he is like the angels,And because of his perfect life, he is equal to the Apostles."
Written in a similar style to Bede's poem is the hymn De Gaudio Paradisi ("On the Joy of Paradise"), which is usually attributed to Peter Damien, who was an Italian cardinal of the 11th century, but which may be by his friend and pupil Alberic of Monte Cassino.
Pange, lingua, / gloriósi // Córporis mys/térium, Sanguinísque / pretiósi, // Quem in mundi / prétium Fructus ventris / generósi // Rex effúdit / géntium.
The trochaic septenarius was also sometimes used in the medieval period for secular writing, such as the Frankish soldier Angelbert's account of the Battle of Fontenoy in 841, which begins:[47] Aurora cum / primo mane // tetra noctis / dividet, Sabbati non / illud fuit, // sed Saturni / doleo, de fraterna / rupta pace // gaudet demon / impius.
clamant / hinc et inde // pugna gravis / oritur, frater fratri / mortem parat, // nepoti a/vunculus; filius nec / patri suo // exhibet quod / meruit.
"When Dawn early in the morning divided the darkness of the night, That was not the day of the Sabbath, I grieve, but of Saturn; Over a broken fraternal peace the impious demon rejoices.
However, in some cases, the short vowels of some words such as gravis, parat, nepoti, oritur, meruit would need to be pronounced long to make the poem scan according to classical prosody.
"A certain king of the East named Joel who was making a wedding in Cana of Galilee, deigned to invite many guests to join the dinner crowd; who, after washing themselves in the Jordan, ran to the banquet."
This can be scanned according to traditional metrics only by pronouncing certain short vowels as long (nominē, ōrientis, Gālileae, fāciebat), which might be done more easily if the poem was sung to music.
The following metre, used in several odes by the 14th century poet Hafez,[49] is similar to the trochaic tetrameter catalectic: sīne mālāmāl-e dard ast; / ey deriqā, marham-īdel ze tanhā'ī be jān āmad, Xodā-rā, hamdam-ī | – u – – | – u – – | – u – – | – u – | "My breast is brimful of pain; alas, a remedy!My heart is dying of loneliness, for God's sake, (send) a companion!"
One is Friedrich Schiller's Ode to Joy, written in 1785, which was set to music by Beethoven in the last movement of his 9th symphony: Freude, schöner Götterfunken, //Tochter aus ElysiumWir betreten feuertrunken, //Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Another poem is the Deutschlandlied, which was written by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben in 1841, with the intention that it should be sung to the tune composed by Joseph Haydn in 1797 for an earlier anthem in honour of the Emperor Francis II.
