TheAlcaic stanza is aGreeklyricalmeter, anAeolic verse form traditionally believed to have been invented byAlcaeus, a lyricpoet from Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, about 600 BC.[1] The Alcaic stanza and theSapphic stanza named for Alcaeus' contemporary,Sappho, are two important forms of Classical poetry. The Alcaic stanza consists of two Alcaichendecasyllables, followed by an Alcaic enneasyllable and an Alcaic decasyllable.
The Alcaic stanza exists only in a few fragments of Alcaeus's poetry. As used by Alcaeus it has the following scheme (where "–" is alongum, "u" abreve, and "×" ananceps):
× – u – × – u u – u – || (alc11)× – u – × – u u – u – || (alc11)× – u – × – u – – || (alc9 )– u u – u u – u – – ||| (alc10)
An example, quoted by Athenaeus, is:
Apart from a single poem ofStatius (Silv. 4.5), the Alcaic stanza appears to have been used in Latin only byHorace, who employed it in 37 of his 103Odes.[3]
In Horace the Alcaic stanza takes this form:
x – u – – : – u u – u –x – u – – : – u u – u –x – u – – – u – –– u u – u u – u – –
(An "–" denotes a long syllable, "u" a short one, x isanceps (long or short), and ":" is the caesura.) The first syllable in lines 1 to 3 is sometimes short (13 times in book 1), but usually long. The 5th syllable, unlike in Greek, is always long. There is almost always a word-break after the 5th syllable.[4]
– – u – : – – u u – u –Antehāc nefās dēprōmere Caecubum – – u – – : – u u – u–cellīs avītīs, dum Capitōliō – – u – – – u– – Rēgīna dēmentīs ruīnās – u u – u u– u – – fūnus et Imperiō parābat. (Odes 1.37, lines 5-8)
Certain developments can be observed in the Alcaic stanza over the course of the four books of Horace'sOdes. For example, the short syllable at the beginning of the first three lines becomes less frequent in the course of books 1 to 3 and is not found at all in Book 4.[5]
A notable feature of Horace's Alcaics is the heavy word which usually fills the centre of the 3rd line.[6] The most common pattern is for the line to end with a polysyllable + trisyllable (e.g.Augustusadiectīs Britannīs). This puts a word accent on the 5th syllable of the line, which occurs in 67% of the lines.[7] Another form of the line is to end in a polysyllable + disyllable (e.g.Tītānasimmānemque turbam). This puts an accent on the 6th syllable of the line. It is uncommon at first (only 5% in book 1 and 6% in book 2) but becomes more common in the later books (25% in book 3 and 30% in book 4).[8]
A tetrasyllable ending in the 3rd line (e.g.nōdōcoercēs vīperīnō) or double disyllable ending (e.g.prōnōsrelābī posse rīvōs), on the other hand, putting an accent on the 4th syllable of the line, is not common: only 7% in book 1, 8% in book 2; and not found at all in books 3 and 4. But 3rd lines ending with a monosyllable + trisyllable (e.g.stetērecausae cūr perīrent) seem more acceptable, and form 20% of lines in book 1, 15% in book 2, 7% in book 3, and 11% in book 4.[8]
A famous example of English Alcaics isTennyson's "Milton":
O mighty-mouth'd inventor of harmonies,
O skill'd to sing of Time or Eternity,
God-gifted organ-voice of England,
Milton, a name to resound for ages![9]
The Alcaic stanza was adapted to use in English and French during the Renaissance. It was very frequently used in Italian poetry of the 19th century, especially byGiosuè Carducci. As in English, the meter is accentual rather than quantitative.
Poi che un sereno vapor d’ambrosia
da la tua còppa diffuso avvolsemi,
o Ebe con passo di dea
trasvolata sorridendo via;
In Polish poetry (in contrast to theSapphic stanza which was extremely popular since the 16th century) Alcaics were used very rarely. Even in translationHorace's Alcaic stanzas were usually turned into different forms. An example (perhaps the only) of an Alcaic stanza in Polish original literature is Stanisław Trembecki'sOde to Adam Naruszewicz:[10]
O ty, kapłanie Delijskiego świętny,
Przeszłego wiadom, przyszłości pojętny
Wieńcz twe skronie, wieszczą bierz laskę,
Śnieżny ubiór i złotą przepaskę.
Trembecki's verse is syllabic (11/11/9/10). There is no accentual metrical pattern.
German has also used alcaics with some success. They were introduced byKlopstock, and used byHölderlin, byJohann Heinrich Voss in his translations of Horace, byAugust Kopisch and other 19th century German poets.[9]