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Latin Metre
This is an accessible, jargon free reference work, written in the simplest possible terms, for students and teachers, covering every type Latin metre from the early "saturnian" to medieval accentual verse.
"In this companion volume to his Greek Metre, D.S. Raven has provided a work of reference which will be useful not only the undergratuate and [A-level] student but also many teachers of Latin. On every kind of metre, from the primitive "saturnian" to medieval accentual, information is given in the simplest possible terms. There are metrical notes on selected authors and an index of technical terms. With this introduction at hand, no-one who reads any kind of Latin poetry has legitimate grounds for thinking that questions of metre are too difficult or boring." – Times Literary Supplement
"His aim is to simplify, thus helping students who recoil from the quantitative metres 'with quite unjustifiable alarm'. Whether they embark on the perilous seas of verse composition or only read the Roman poets, they will profit greatly..." – Greece and Rome
"In this companion volume to his Greek Metre, D.S. Raven has provided a work of reference which will be useful not only the undergratuate and [A-level] student but also many teachers of Latin. On every kind of metre, from the primitive "saturnian" to medieval accentual, information is given in the simplest possible terms. There are metrical notes on selected authors and an index of technical terms. With this introduction at hand, no-one who reads any kind of Latin poetry has legitimate grounds for thinking that questions of metre are too difficult or boring." – Times Literary Supplement
"His aim is to simplify, thus helping students who recoil from the quantitative metres 'with quite unjustifiable alarm'. Whether they embark on the perilous seas of verse composition or only read the Roman poets, they will profit greatly..." – Greece and Rome
124 pages, Paperback
First published June 26, 1998
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March 10, 2008
D.S. Raven's LATIN METRE was originally published in 1965 by Faber and Faber. The Bristol Classical Press imprint Duckworth reissued it in 1998, and we should be thankful, for it proves a very useful reference. I read Classics as an undergraduate, and I sorely wish that I had known of Raven's book when I was working my way through Virgil, Plautus, Juvenal, and others.
The first three chapters are meant to be read straight through. Here Raven explains the system of short and long quantity, some general phenomenon (elision, hiatus), and the basic metrical feet. He shows how much of the Latin system is borrowed wholesale from Greek, though he notes that Latin's own accent plays an important role in verse, and that Latin once had its own metre (the Saturnian). The remainder of the main body of the book is for reference. It consists of chapters dedicated to each metre: Iambic and Trochaic, Dactylic, Anapestic, Bacchiac and Cretic, Ionic, and Aeolic. These can be consulted when you find some peculiar challenge in the metre of a Latin poet. Finally, there are a couple of useful appendices. There's a note on prose rhythm and Ciceronian "Clausulae", and then metrical notes on selected authors.
The first three chapters are meant to be read straight through. Here Raven explains the system of short and long quantity, some general phenomenon (elision, hiatus), and the basic metrical feet. He shows how much of the Latin system is borrowed wholesale from Greek, though he notes that Latin's own accent plays an important role in verse, and that Latin once had its own metre (the Saturnian). The remainder of the main body of the book is for reference. It consists of chapters dedicated to each metre: Iambic and Trochaic, Dactylic, Anapestic, Bacchiac and Cretic, Ionic, and Aeolic. These can be consulted when you find some peculiar challenge in the metre of a Latin poet. Finally, there are a couple of useful appendices. There's a note on prose rhythm and Ciceronian "Clausulae", and then metrical notes on selected authors.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review