ALCAIC From "The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics" ‘An acolic strophe named after Aleaeus of Leshos (fl early 6th c. BCE) that consists of two 11-syllable lines (aleaic hendecasyilables) having the form x-y- x-wy- w- followed by a third line that is a rhythmic extension of the frst two: x — wo XW X= ww ww w-(Snell). The Alexandnian grammarians separated the third line into two parts, after the ninth position, creating a four-line stanza, the third line of nine syllables (x - w~ x - w~~) and the fourth of ten (= ww - war w- ‘The first two lines, the hendecasyllables, are Inown as greater alcaics, the decasyllable (fourth line) as a lesser aleaic. Horace who used this strophe more than any other in his Odes (37 times), seems to have regarded it as a four-ine stanza, allowing hiatus Detween third and fourth lines (e.g., Odes 2.14.3-4). Horace's aleaic strophe was used by med. poets: Hilary of Poitiers (4th e. CE ) im his frst hymnn created a stanza consisting of a glyconic alternating with either an alcaic hendecasyllable or an azclepiad, Prudentius (ca. 348-405) used the aleaic hendecasyilable for stichic verse; and the hendecasyllable in quatrains, devised by Ennodius (late Sth c), hecame the most used alcaic form of the Middle Ages. It was adapted in It. by Gabriello Chiabrera (1352-1638), Paolo Roll (1687-1765), and Giovanni Fantoni (1755-1807). Like Chiabrera, Ren. metrists in England and France attempted imitations of aleaice on both accentual and quantitative principles. In 18th-e. Germany, F.G. Klopstock ("An meine Freunde," “An Fanny”) composed 17 aleaic odes, as did Friedrich Holderlin ("An die Parzen," "Der Main"), August von Platen, and others in the 19th. alfred, Lord Tennyson's aleaic ode to John Milton (*O mighty-mouth’d inventor of harmonies") makes the most, serious effort of his age to reproduce the cl. rules for quantitative scansion without replacing quantity by stress; and Tennyson considered the In Memoriam stanza related to the aleaic. By contrast, Arthur Clough and A.C. Swinbume wrote accentual aleaics. Trans. of el. aleaics in the 20th ¢. include examples by Richmond Lattimore (Greek Lyrics, 1985) and J.B. Leishman's ‘trans. of Horace (1856) ‘See CLASSICAL METERS IN MODERN LANGUAGES. * Grasser, F. V., De stropha aleaica (1865); Brocks, E., ‘Die Fortleben der alkaische Strophe,” Germanisch Romanische ‘Monatsschrift 13 (1925); Francabandera, O., Contribuzioni alla storia dell'aleaica (1928); Norberg; Bowra; Bennett, W., German Verse in Classical Metres (1963); Koster; Bonavia Hunt, N. A., Horace the Minstrel (1968); Nisbet, RGM. and Hubbard, M., A Commentary on Horace: "Odes" Book I (1970); Schifer, E., Deutscher Horaz (1976); Halporn etal; Snell: West; Schaller, D., "Der alkdische Hendekasyllabus im frihen Mittelalter." Mittellateinisches Jabrbuch 19 (1984), Warren, R., “Alcaics in Exile. Auden's, W. H. In Memory of Sigmund Freud,‘ "Philosophy and Literature 20 (1996), Talbot J, "Tennyson's Alcaice: Greek and Latin Prorody and the Invention of Englich Meters," sp 101 (2004). ABM R.A. SWANSON, J.W.HALPORN LVF. BROGAN [P rrinceron UNIVERSITY PRESS f Princed .Persistent URL to this entry: http /jwww credoreference.com/entryipspostrylaleaic APA, ALCAIC. (2012). In The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Retrieved from ‘https /inewprony brown edu/login? gurl http’3A%2F%2F www credoreference com/entzyiprpoetryaleaic Chicago The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, sv. “ALCAIC." accessed January 22, 2013, -hitps:/inewproxy brown edu/login? qurl= http ’3A%2F%2F www credoreference com/entzyiprpoetrylaleaic Harvard “ALCAIC’ 2012, in The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NI, USA, ‘viewed 22 January 2013, MLA “ALCAIC." The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. Credo Reference. Web. 22 January 2013,