Anonymous
7/11/2025, 5:53:42 AM
No.24539372
>>24539340
>>24538362
And let me correct something I said earlier, that Pharr cites Evangeline "as an example of an attempt at actual length-based hexameter in English." I re-read what he wrote there, and it's not entirely unambiguous.
>1192. To obtain facility in reading the verse, a considerable quantity of it should be memorized, special attention being paid to the quantity (that is, twice as much time should be given to each long syllable as to a short), and the pauses should be carefully observed. Although English verse is primarily accentual rather than quantitative, still the memorizing of a few lines of English dactylic hexameter (Longfellow's "Evangeline," for example, mediocre though it be) will materially aid in getting the swing and the movement of the Greek hexameter.
It could be read (as I did) that Evangeline is a counterexample to typical English verse, but I suppose it could also be read that even though English dactylic hexameter is "primarily accentual rather than quantitative," it is still an "aid in getting the swing and movement of the Greek hexameter."
>>24538362
And let me correct something I said earlier, that Pharr cites Evangeline "as an example of an attempt at actual length-based hexameter in English." I re-read what he wrote there, and it's not entirely unambiguous.
>1192. To obtain facility in reading the verse, a considerable quantity of it should be memorized, special attention being paid to the quantity (that is, twice as much time should be given to each long syllable as to a short), and the pauses should be carefully observed. Although English verse is primarily accentual rather than quantitative, still the memorizing of a few lines of English dactylic hexameter (Longfellow's "Evangeline," for example, mediocre though it be) will materially aid in getting the swing and the movement of the Greek hexameter.
It could be read (as I did) that Evangeline is a counterexample to typical English verse, but I suppose it could also be read that even though English dactylic hexameter is "primarily accentual rather than quantitative," it is still an "aid in getting the swing and movement of the Greek hexameter."