A
lyric metre named after the
Greek poet
Archilochus.
The metre is made up of two pairs of intermittant catalectic dactylic hexameter and catalectic dactylic tetrameter in the following scheme:
-^^/-^^/-^^/-^^/-^^/--
-^^/-^^/-^^/-^^/--
-^^/-^^/-^^/-^^/-^^/--
-^^/-^^/-^^/-^^/--
(Each of the dactyls (-^^) can be replaced by Spondees (--) except for the fifth foot of the hexameter. The last syllable of the last feet can be replaced with a short one)
The Caesura will usually appear after the first syllable of either the third or fourth foot. Rarely it will appear between the two short syllables of the third foot.
Example (in Latin):
- -/- ^ ^/-: -/- ^ ^ / - ^ ^/- -
Laudabunt alii : claram Rhodon aut Mytilenen
- ^ ^/- ^ ^/- ^ ^/- -
aut Epheson bimarisque Corinthi
- ^^/ - - / - -/- : ^ ^/- ^ ^/ - -
moenia vel Baccho Thebas : vel Apolline Delphos
- -/ - - / - ^ ^/ - -
insignis aut Thessala Tempe:
(Hor. Od. I, VII 1-4)
* - long or stressed syllable; ^ short or unstressed syllable; : caesura.