kborsden
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An elegiac couplet is a pair of verses, the first of which is dactylic hexameter and the second dactylic pentameter. The form is the origin of the elegy, epitaph and epigram, and is the great grandma of the poetic device, the volta (or turn) – some would therefore also argue the couplet as the primordial sonnet.
This couplet form is also known as the ‘rise and fall couplet’ (and otherwise, the rise before falling couplet). It was used in ancient Grecian poetry for a variety of themes, but mostly those less suited to the epic and would be applied sequentially. They aren’t required to rhyme. The Ancients believed the first verse gave a sense of rising and for this reason it would usually contain a truth or exponent of an absolute ideal; the second verse would then ‘fall’, or, for want of a better phrase, reply to the first verse, in a contrasting thought or alternate truth etc. The form later became adapted to the elegy and eulogy – but during its heyday in the Hellenistic period had all manner of applications.
I've encountered a contemporary adaptation called 'stark reality couplets' which follows a more defined volta/turn principle, and I’d like to use the couplet form for an exercise/game. I am aware of the difficulty that dactylic metre poses for English language poets and so propose we make it simple enough for everyone to join in: verse 1 = hexameter, realised in any 6 metric feet, or if you’re uneasy with feet simply 12 syllables; verse 2 = pentameter, any 5 feet, or simply 10 syllables.
No stranger to experimentation, I also suggest we take the line from the previous post as our first line. In this respect we will have a set of elegiac couplets first as 6/5, followed by 5/6. So the next poster knows which format to use, I’d like to ask each poster to note their own format before their couplet.
Sound complicated? I’ll break it down:
Hexametric verse = a truth or supposed absolute, a point of definition
Pentametric verse = alternate truth, or contrasting ideal
No rhyme (unless you want to)
Use last poster’s final verse as your first
Note your format 6/5 or 5/6 so the next poster knows which way round to use their verses
I’ll go first with an example, and follow in the next post with a response – just to make it even more clear.
6/5
I see only emptiness inside my visions
and I would like to think myself a sage
This couplet form is also known as the ‘rise and fall couplet’ (and otherwise, the rise before falling couplet). It was used in ancient Grecian poetry for a variety of themes, but mostly those less suited to the epic and would be applied sequentially. They aren’t required to rhyme. The Ancients believed the first verse gave a sense of rising and for this reason it would usually contain a truth or exponent of an absolute ideal; the second verse would then ‘fall’, or, for want of a better phrase, reply to the first verse, in a contrasting thought or alternate truth etc. The form later became adapted to the elegy and eulogy – but during its heyday in the Hellenistic period had all manner of applications.
I've encountered a contemporary adaptation called 'stark reality couplets' which follows a more defined volta/turn principle, and I’d like to use the couplet form for an exercise/game. I am aware of the difficulty that dactylic metre poses for English language poets and so propose we make it simple enough for everyone to join in: verse 1 = hexameter, realised in any 6 metric feet, or if you’re uneasy with feet simply 12 syllables; verse 2 = pentameter, any 5 feet, or simply 10 syllables.
No stranger to experimentation, I also suggest we take the line from the previous post as our first line. In this respect we will have a set of elegiac couplets first as 6/5, followed by 5/6. So the next poster knows which format to use, I’d like to ask each poster to note their own format before their couplet.
Sound complicated? I’ll break it down:
Hexametric verse = a truth or supposed absolute, a point of definition
Pentametric verse = alternate truth, or contrasting ideal
No rhyme (unless you want to)
Use last poster’s final verse as your first
Note your format 6/5 or 5/6 so the next poster knows which way round to use their verses
I’ll go first with an example, and follow in the next post with a response – just to make it even more clear.
6/5
I see only emptiness inside my visions
and I would like to think myself a sage
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