Kenney_and_Clausen B.M.W.(eds.) - Get a Free Blog

METRICAL APPENDIX
(i) BASIC PRINCIPLES
(A) STRESSED AND QUANTITATIVE VERSE
In metres familiar to speakers of English, rhythm is measured by the predictable alternation
of one or more stressed syllables with one or more unstressed syllables (distinguished
by the notation - and ^, or ' and x ). Consequently, it is word-accent that
determines whether or not a word or sequence of words may stand in a certain part of
the verse. Thus the word classical may occupy the metrical unit represented by the
notation —w-. Verse constructed
upon this principle is conventionally designated quantitative: it should be
emphasized that this term refers to the quantity (or 'weight') of syllables, and that
throughout this account such quantity is described by the terms 'heavy' and ' light' to
distinguish it from the intrinsic length of vowels; unfortunately, both syllabic weight
and vowel-length are still generally denoted by the same symbols, - and .
(B) SYLLABIFICATION
A syllable containing a long vowel or diphthong is heavy (e.g. the first syllables of
pacem and laudo).
A syllable containing a short vowel is light if it ends with that vowel (e.g. the first
syllable oipecus), but heavy if it ends with a consonant (e.g. the first syllable ofpectus).
To decide whether or not a short-vowel led syllable ends with a consonant (and thus
to establish its quantity), the following rules should be observed: 1 (i) word-division
1
The resulting division is practical only; for the difficulties involved in an absolute definition
of the syllabic unit see Allen (1973) under (4) below, esp. 27—40.
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