Journal articles on the topic 'Elegiac distich'

Aside from its wealth of meaning and contexts, Ovid’s poetry seems to be sometimes difficult to translate into Polish. This paper shows such an extreme situation using the example of Ex P IV 12, where the translator is virtually helpless in the face of the poet’s subtle sense of humor and sophisticated play with a reader on the grounds of the nature of Roman elegiac distich.

Libro quarto Corporis Tibulliani continentur ignoti poetae longa elegia, quae Panegyricus Messallae vulgo appeIlatur (IV, I), quinque elegiae auctoris, quem "Sulpiciae laudatorem" voco (IV, 2--6), sex brevia elegidia sub Sulpiciae nomine servata (IV, 7-12) et postremo duae elegiae TibuIlo adiudicatae (IV, 13-14). Multi viri docti iam diu disputant, qui fuerit "Sulpiciae laudator". Qui poeta talem distichi elegiaci structuram adhibere solebat, qualis ante Ovidium exculta est. Constat autem auctorem elegiarum IV, 2--6, quae de amore Sulpiciae erga Cerinthum narrant atque a muItis viris doctis Tibulli opera ducuntur, "Sulpiciae laudatorem" fuisse. Quisnam is esset et quare Matronalium die elegiam III, 8 Sulpiciae donasset, quaerebatur. Nova opinio ad ignoti poetae personam, eius vitae aetatem otiumque litterarium spectans nostro in opusculo proposita est. Ex meis investigationibus apparet Servium Sulpicium Quinti Horatii Flacci amicum aequalemque aetate (Hor., Sat., I, 10, 86), elegiarum scriptorem (Ovid., Trist., II, 441; Plin., Ep., V, 3, 5) se poetriae fratrem firmissimumque "Sulpiciae laudatorem" praestare.

Dracontius’s Satisfactio, though undoubtedly a prime example of a very complex literary work, is not really a work that cannot be properly described in generic terms. Upon consideration, the label ‘penitential elegy’ appears to be the most appropriate one, as it clearly indicates the major theme of the poem (the contrition of the sinner who acknowledges his sin above all before the God and, in the second place, before the Vandal king Gunthamund, to whom he pleads guilty to some not fully specified misdeed) as well as its metrical form. As for the latter, what is of particular relevance is not merely the fact that the piece is composed in elegiac couplets, but also that it is clearly written with an eye on Ovid the elegist. It is above all Ovid’s exilic motifs that Dracontius reuses throughout his poem, with special focus on Tristia II, imitated not so much through explicit verbal echoes, but rather through the general analogy of poetic situations in which the punished poet openly addresses his punisher, the princeps (Dracontius ostentatiously cites this ‘Ovidian’ word). At times, Dracontius happens to be no less provocative than Ovid was in apostrophizing his powerful addressee, although adopting a protreptic tone (which naturally implies some sort of superiority to the literary ‘you’), he does not pose as an expert in poetry with blemish life, despite his musa iococa (as Ovid did), but as a ‘fellow-Christian’ (suppressing all doctrinal discrepancies between his own Catholicism and Gunthamund’s Arianism) and indeed: a ‘fellow-sinner’ who forgives his (royal) ‘brother’ and asks for forgiveness in return. Moreover, the penitential tone of the poem is also stressed by several references to the Psalms and in particular to the figure of King David doing penance, exactly as in the Polish Baroque penitential elegy. The generic label I have advocated throughout my article is, in fact, ‘borrowed from’ the students of Old-Polish poetry, who are virtually unanimous in recognizing Baroque penitential elegy as a separate literary subgenre. It is not my intention to argue against such conclusions, as the generic features indicated by those specialist are quite convincing (I myself have found them very helpful for my own research), yet what I do emphasize is the very fact that the term ‘elegy’ when referred to vernacular poetry is applied not strictly (it is not related to any specific meter) but rather metaphorically, as if merely pointing to a general ‘mood’ of a poem. In Latin poetry, however, ‘elegy’, meaning ‘automatically’ the elegiac distich, means also concrete intertextual associations, primarily with Ovid (precisely like in Dracontius’s Satisfactio). Hence, when used to describe Dracontius’s text, the label ‘penitential elegy’ reveals its full hermeneutic potential.

‘This little book has verses of composed modulamen, so that he who wishes to be retentive may hold on to his breath.’ With this elegiac distich Notker Balbulus concluded the preface dedicating his Liber ymnorum to Liutward, Bishop of Vercelli, abbot of Bobbio, archchaplain and chancellor to the then emperor, Charles the Fat. The collection of sequences must have been sent to Liutward during 884, since by December of that year Notker had broken off work on his Metrum de vita sancti Galli, mentioned in the preface to the Liber ymnorum as in the process of preparation. The genesis of the book of sequences can be traced farther back: Notker tells in his preface how, on showing verses to his teacher Iso, corrections were proposed. Later he presented some ‘little verses’ to his teacher Marcellus (the Irish monk Moengal) who ‘with joy’ collected them on parchment scrolls (rotulae) and gave them to his students to sing. Marcellus died at St Gallen in 871, Iso in the same year at the monastery of Moutier-Grandval, where he had been sent to teach some time previously. Many of the ‘versus modulaminis apti’ must have been composed already by 871.

The article presents a publication of two epigrams written by D. G. Messeschmidt and dedicated to I. Ph. Breyn; both are preserved in the latter’s archive. The first epigram is an inscription in verse to Breyn’s portrait and was probably sent to him from Saint Petersburg following Messerschmidt’s return from Siberia, i.e. between 1727 and 1735 (and not 1701–1800 as indicated on the site of Dresden Fotothek). It is very likely that the inscription was meant to accompany the engraving a copy of which is preserved at Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Signatur/Inventar-Nr.: Anon 1, Singer 3769/9920) and may be seen on the website of Deutsche Fotothek Dresden (Archiv-Nr 169051). I. Ph. Breyn might have sent two portraits to Saint Petersburg, one of himself and one of his father, and Messerschmidt would have composed an inscription in verse for each. In 1739 an elegiac distich by Messerschmidt was published that was also incorporated in the frame of the portrait of Jakob Breyn, painted by the famous engraver P. G. Busch. S. S. Orekhov has suggested that P. G. Busch’s engraving might render the portrait drawn by the same unknown master (Deutsche Fotothek Dresden, Archiv-Nr 169050). Iohannes Philipp Breyn’s own portrait remained unpublished. The second poem is a dedication in an album that is preserved in I. Ph. Breyn’s museum in Gdansk (Forschungsbibliothek Gotha Chart. B 1002) and is dated November 1716. The poem is untitled (the fact that is also emphasized in the text), but introduced by an epigraph in Old Hebrew that has been extensively commented upon by Cyrill von Buettner (Bitner). The Latin poem that abounds in assonances and complex word play leaves the feeling of a certain emotional strain. Both poems, however, reflect Messerschmidt’s general erudition and character, as well as his enthusiastic admiration for I. Ph. Breyn as a senior colleague in scientific and medical studies.

V antiki je bila ‘elegija’ vsaka nekoliko daljša pesem, zložena v elegičnem distihu, tematsko pa je – zlasti v stari Grčiji – lahko obravnavala pestro paleto govorčevih čustev in mnenj. Nasprotno se je v angleški poeziji razvila nova podzvrst, ‘pogrebna elegija’, tako da se je pojem elegije počasi zožil na pesem, ki izraža tožbo ali vsaj kaže resen, zamišljen ton. Drug pomemben odklon angleške elegije od njene antične predhodnice je njena poljubna oblika. Odločilni kriterij ‘elegičnosti’ se je tako prenesel z oblike na vsebino, predvsem pa na razpoloženje.

An inscribed funerary stele probably from Miletoupolis has been recently published by E. Laflı and M.E. Uyar (Laflı – Uyar 2021, 77-79 no. 2). This short note offers a revision of the inscription from the published photograph as well as a brief commentary. The inscription is identified as a pair of elegiac distichs containing a funerary imprecation against any desecrator of the stele. While this curse echoes known formulae, it also contains a few distinct phrasings (including one new compound verb).

Abstract: “Verses from Ivrea” (northern suburban town of Turin, Italy, near the Po waterway), an elegiac love poem, dates from the late eleventh century and is attributed to a certain Wido. It celebrates not the usual contemptus mundi of the era but rather worldly pleasures. The poem draws on a wealth of Latin classical sources, Ovid in particular, which leads the editor to view it as a precursor to the twelfth-century Renaissance. Kretschmer (hereafter K.), a Norwegian Classics professor, now based in Paris, publishes herewith his third major work, a book-length edition and study of this unusual and unique poetic text of 150 bisyllabic leonine distichs in elegiac meter. The poem was previously categorized as part of the vernacular pastourelle genre, but K. dispels that argument by listing its manifold divergent features ‐ “…metrical love poetry, descriptio puellae, poet’s pride, poetical expression of the economic and cultural growth of the eleventh century…” ‐ as a classical display that illustrates well the so-called long twelfth century (22).

This paper aims to revise and reconstruct the highly corrupt text of Heinrich Isaac’s Marianic motet O decus ecclesiae by examining the only manuscript source anew. It can be demonstrated that the text is written in elegiac distichs and artfully blends Christian ideas and classicising language. It is therefore highly probable that its author was one of the leading humanist poets at the court of Emperor Maximilian I and that the elegy was commissioned for a representative event.

The Greek epigram published in this article was discovered in 2016 in modern Turkey, at Kibyra in southwest Asia Minor, during excavations under the directorship of Assoc. Prof. Şükrü Özüdoğru of the University of Burdur. Six lines preserving 3 elegiac distichs are carved on a stone that also features a relief showing a round shield with two greaves on either side. The epigram probably dates between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE and evokes the classical ideal of both physical and civic excellence in commemorating a man who died fighting as a citizen-soldier.

Girls’ nuptial songs of the Oromoo of Horn of Africa are powerful folksong genres, but are rarely practiced today. Ethnographic data were collected and analyzed contextually, structurally, functionally, and semantically from multidisciplinary approaches: folklore, ethnomusicology, anthropology, sociology, literature, linguistic, gender, and others’ theories. They are classified into arrabsoo (insult), faaruu (praise), mararoo (elegiac/dirge), ansoosillee (bridal praise), fala (resolution), and raaga (prediction) with their distinct natures. Macca Oromoo girls compose these competitively to making weddings memorable, express themselves, inspire and encourage men for brave and appropriate actions. These genres form binary oppositions in their respective orders and enrich the culture. They also depict identities and roles of girls in creations and maintaining of culture.

In an earlier article in Classical Quarterly, S. J. Harrison explored the varying frequency of hexameter-endings of the type discordia taetra, where a noun that ends in short a is followed by its epithet with the same termination. It appears from this that while most pre-Augustan poets allow a fairly high frequency of such verse-endings (e.g. Lucretius 1:130, Catullus 1:204), some Augustan poets and their imitators show a distinct tendency to avoid them (e.g. Vergil, Georgics 1:547), while some almost exclude them altogether (e.g. Ovid, Metamorphoses 1:4999, Statius, Thebaid 1:1948). The hexameters of elegiac poetry might be subject to the same restriction; the following are figures for elegy from Catullus to Martial.

Abstract This article examines two modern women poets’ ambivalent engagements with Arabic elegy: the Iraqi Nazik al-Malaʾikah and the Egyptian Iman Mersal. Although they wrote in different national contexts and historical eras, with utterly distinct political and aesthetic projects, a close look at their verse reveals a specter of the bereft-yet-eloquent “ancient Arab woman” haunting their respective poetic voices. Looking in particular at a conventionally metered and rhymed ode like al-Malaʾikah’s “To My Late Aunt” (Ila ʿAmmati al-Rahilah) and at the quasi-elegiac threads woven through the prose poems in Mersal’s 1992 collection, A Dark Corridor Suitable for Learning How to Dance (Mamarr Muʾtam Yuslah Li-Taʿallum al-Raqs) allows us to see how durable and omnipresent the woman-elegy association is in Arabic – surfacing everywhere from the heyday of Iraqi modernism, with its revaluation of conventional metrical forms, all the way through the unmetered, unrhymed experimentations of the “nineties generation” in Egypt.

This article links Konstantin Batiushkov's poem Elysium (1810) to the tradition of poetic imitations of Janus Secundus's Basium II. A French equivalent for this poem's pythiambic distichs was invented by Ronsard (Chanson, 1578), who used cross-rhymed quatrains with regular alternation of dodecasyllabic and hexasyllablic lines. However, the French translators of Basia of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries could not use this metre, because its semantic aura was drastically changed by Malherbe's Consolation à Monsieur du Périer (1598). Batiushkov's Elysium as well as its Latin and French sources are poems about a delightful death and the union of lovers in the afterlife; yet the metre, which was used in Malherbe's poem, was for more than two centuries a metre of mournful elegiac stanzas about eternal separation. The question of a metrical prototype for Batiushkov's poem still remains undetermined. His "anacreontic" trochaic tetrameter does not have analogues in the Latin original or its French translations, but coincides with the metre of G. A. Bürger's Die Umarmung from 1776 (of which Batiushkov was hardly aware in 1810), and finds parallels in some eighteenth-century Russian imitations of Basium II which were most likely forgotten by the beginning of the nineteenth century.

After having been for some while the butt of conservative critics, verse transpositions in Propertius have, mainly thanks to the work of G. P. Goold, again become respectable among scholars. In his edition of Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius J. J. Scaliger (first edition: Paris 1577,2Antwerp 1582, several times reprinted), the great archeget of the method, had subjected the other great elegist of Propertius’ generation to the same treatment,2 and in fact one of Scaliger's transpositions is supported by external evidence: 1.5.71–6 belong after 6.32; this is confirmed by Ovid's imitation in Trist. 2.447ff. Trist. 2. 459–60 (scit, cui latretur, cum solus obambulet, ipsel cui totiens clausas excreet ante fores) echo Tib. 1.6.31f. (ille ego sum, nee me iam dicere uera pudebit.l instabat tola cui tua node canis) and 5.73 (et simulat transire domum, mox deinde recurritl solus et ante ipsas exscreat usque fores). That Ovid should have brought together in one distich verses from two different Tibullian poems may not seem wholly impossible, but much less likely than that the lines in Tibullus were also consecutive, in particular because the distich immediately preceding 459f. clearly refers to the situation of Tib. 1.6.

The purpose of this paper is to point out the unsolved problem of the anapaestic monodies’ unsecure colometry in Seneca’s tragedies as well as expose the so called sense-correspondence principle to help scholars propose a metrical subdivision of lines closer to the original one. In the first part of the paper I explain the difficulties about colometry that concern the division of trimeters into dimeters and monometers. I then outline a brief status quaestionis about this matter and the attempts at solving it. Proposals by Richter, Zweirlein and Fitch are examined, their methods and criteria analysed in detail in the second paragraph. In the third I propose an analysis of three passages of Thyestes 938-956 using Fitch’s criteria so as every aspect of the text, including metrical or stylistic characteristics, is more respected than in Zwierlein’s text. I then show how sense-correspondence is used to analyse a text and help understand the employment and meaning of the anapaestic metre to express a conflict or psychological dilemma such as in the Thyestes. Lastly, I suggest new areas of possible research pertaining to poetry using this principle, as it also respected in Ovid’s elegiac distiches and late antique poetry. A detailed metrical analysis of Zwierlein’s and Fitch’s texts is supplied in the appendix.

For Homer's Circe the story of Argo's voyage was already well known. Although we cannot be sure that the Odyssey's first audience was aware of Medea's role in Jason's story, we do know that by the time that Ovid came to write Heroides, she had already appeared in numerous Greek and Latin texts, in epic and lyric poetry and on the tragic stage. Given her complex textual and dramatic history, it seems hardly likely that any Ovidian Medea could actually be ‘a simple girl'. And yet precisely this charge of ‘simplicity’ has been levelled against Heroides 12 and its Active author. I propose to argue that the Medea of Heroides 12 is complex, not simple, and that her complexity derives from the fact that Ovid has positioned his elegiac heroine between past and future, guilt and innocence, epic and tragedy.Like all of Ovid's heroines, Medea writes at a critical juncture in her mythic life. But Medea's myth differs significantly from those of her fellow authors, for it requires her to play five distinct roles in four separate locations. Thus while Penelope, for example, plays only the part of Ulysses' loyal wife on Ithaca immediately before and during her husband's return, Medea plays the ‘simple girl’ in Colchis, the murderous wife in Iolcus, the abandoned mother in Corinth, the poisonous stepmother in Athens and the potential filicide back in Colchis. She is a heroine with a well-known and extensive history and so it is not surprising that the first line of Heroides 12 invokes the concept of memory: memini (‘I remember’).

The article delves into the sketch-like inclinations present in the early works of Ivan Bunin, while also examining the synchronous and diachronic literary contexts surrounding these narratives. The sketch-like aspect apparent in young Bunin’s writing is evidently linked to the traditions of the naturalist school of the 1840s. In a similar vein, the author minimizes intrigue and authorial presence, instead ‘capturing’ fragments of life, abstaining from describing any substantial plot-driving events, and restraining the use of artistic devices. On the whole, these stories unfold over a single day in the lives of the characters - from dawn to dusk - portraying a distinct social archetype of a small-town landowner who, in many aspects, shares commonalities with the peasantry. However, amidst these formal techniques, Bunin introduces new motivations that were hitherto unexplored in Russian literary tradition but discernible within the contemporary European modernist practice. These include an aesthetic gaze, a fascination with decay, contemplative minutiae, the whims of chance, and a particular philosophical ambiance, all of which appear to guide the stories towards a parabolic interpretation. The article concludes that within Bunin’s early prose, impressionistic and inherently modernist elements are seamlessly woven into the sketch-like narrative structure. This integration would subsequently gain greater prevalence and significance in his future works, particularly during his emigrant period. The essence of this amalgamation is not rooted in the realm of prose, but rather in the domain of poetry. Even within his early prose endeavors, Bunin, a poet with classical inclinations, attempts to synthesize the qualities of poetry and prose, drawing from his poetic background to enrich his prose compositions. Consequently, the contemplative quality we mentioned earlier is likely rooted in elegiac themes, whereas impressionism and occasional attributes bear resemblance to elements found within landscapes.

Poetry is a kind of discourse distinct from ordinary, everyday speech; it is an institution, a kind of speech that a society has marked as special, with special rules applying to its production and reception. Didactic poetry is a kind of poetry that it aims to instruct (Toohey, 2013: 2). In didactic poetry the reader is invited to consider not just the message and the brilliant language of its exposition, but what lies behind the message, the human values and the vision which the poem embodies. The article analyzes the work of Orientius “Commonitorium” and his role as an innovative writer of Latin didactic poetry as well as his position in the landscape of late antique literature of the 5th century AD. The aim of the article is to show to what extent the defining characteristics of the genre can be found in Orientius’ poem “Commonitorium” and to trace the permutations of these features throughout the text. A full range of issues, which scholarship on Orientius has hitherto neglected, will be studied: the “poetics” of the work, that is the poetic selfawareness expressed in the poem, as well as techniques of composition, rhetorical argumentation, strategies of persuasion and narration, intertextual allusions, relationship with contemporary works and other aspects. Scientific novelty. Whereas Latin poetry flourished under the reign of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD) and the first century AD, only few poetic works survived which were produced in the later second and third century AD. After a long period of silence, Latin poetry had its comeback in late antiquity when in the 4th century AD various writers started composing poetic genres again. Instead of Rome, other locations became important breeding grounds for the production of literature, especially Gaul, where writers such as Ausonius, Paulinus of Nola, Sulpicius Severus, Sidonius Apollinaris and others were active. Whereas the genres composed by late antique writers were more or less the same as in Classical literature, most of their works differ in content and meaning (Gasparov, 1982: 2; Johnson, 2000: 335–337). Late antique writers were deeply familiar with their Classical literary predecessors, but due to the influence of Christian religion, the character of Latin literature produced in late antiquity also differs significantly from the works which were written by pagan writers in the preceding centuries. This article discusses the work of a poet who has been rarely studied so far. Orientius, whom the majority of scholars now identify with the homonymous bishop of Augusta Ausciorum (modern Auch, France) in Southern Gaul, is an important representative of didactic poetry and his work constitutes an important example in the history of the genre. His didactic poem with the title “Commonitorium”, in elegiacs was probably written around 430 AD. In conclusion, the “Commonitorium” presents itself as a serious poem concerned with issues of paramount importance to humanity. The question of what exactly the “Commonitorium” endeavours to teach is indeed of major importance for understanding the work. It claims to be truly universal work, encompassing everything that exists. Within two books, Orientius reveals to his readers/students the way to reach salvation, both gives us specific, concrete information and tells us how we should live our lives, how we should relate to our fellow human beings and to God.

The verse form Distichon (distich), a classical couplet comprising one hexameter and one pentameter line, can qualify as a Begriff (concept) in Clark Muenzer’s sense of an “experimental technology” that facilitates the intelligibility of a world in flux. Goethe experimented with this ancient form throughout the decade following his return from his first journey to Italy and developed it into a fine-tuned vehicle for his emerging natural scientific and cultural conceptions. While he drew from both the elegiac and epigrammatic distichal traditions, the epigram, in particular, shaped his conceptualization of the distich as a primal poetic unit mediating the poet’s encounter with the world. The flexible segmented structure of the distich, as defined by its two lines and caesuras, nicely accommodates parallel, contrastive, reciprocal, circular, and triadic configurations that play a role in his morphological thought and aesthetic-cultural program.

Abstract Greek periplography appears to have been an almost exclusively prosaic phenomenon. The single exception to this is Zenothemis (4th/3rd cent. BC) whom John Tzetzes credits with the production of an elegiac distich (SH 855 = Tz. H. 7.765f.) apparently sourced from a Periplous. This brief note contributes to the discussion about the shape of Zenothemis’ Periplous by offering a series of stylistic observations about the single surviving fragment and considering the rationale for ascribing (or not) seven other testimonia (SH 856-862) to this poem.

An Erotic Epigram on a Rhodian Ostracon. During excavations on a plot in the central cemetery of Rhodes a deep filling of black earth with evidence of burning was explored. It contained disintegrated skeleton remains, clay urns, pottery fragments, stamped amphora handles, many small artifacts and a large number of inscribed potsherds. All seem to be transferred there from elsewhere to settle the area probably after a natural disaster. As far as the contents of the inscribed texts are concerned, apart from one literary ostracon, which is edited in this article, all the other ostraca are documentary and their edition is under preparation. Based on the palaeographical details the ostracon can be dated to the end of the third and the first half of the second century B.C. The scribe does not write breathings, accents and other diacritics. Some phonological interchanges are justified as local linguistic characteristics. Lines 1-10 preserve two elegiac distichs and lines 11-14 contain one pentameter and one incomplete hexameter. Two hypotheses can be advanced: (a) The epigram consisted of (at least) four elegiac distichs. The hexameter of the third elegiac couplet and the pentameter of the fourth elegiac couplet have been omitted, either deliberately or by mistake. (b) The epigram consisted of three elegiac distichs and the scribe wrote the pentameter of the last distich before the hexameter. The content of the epigram(s) is that Glykera, perhaps a Samian hetaira, managed to be freed from her eros by vowing to dedicate a painting of a pannychis that had taken place on some occasion. Now a deity is asked that a thiasos already offered should also function as a lysis from eros for Papylides. However, the kind of the thiasos and the way it is dedicated are not clear. Also, there are some questions concerning the corresponding elements between the two stories of Glykera and Papylides. Since there are missing verses or the verses are reversed, as said above, it is uncertain whether the text constitutes one or two different epigrams. In the first scenario, it is most likely that the epigram belongs to the category of erotic ones, in which the poet refers to a past event and now asks the deity to act likewise in a parallel situation. However, it is not certain whether Glykera and Papylides were involved in the past. The name Glykera is characteristic for hetairae, while the name Papylides, which derives from Papylos, is attested only in a Byzantine inscription in Bithynia. The deity involved in this story may be Dionysus (because of the thiasos) or Adonis (because of the pannychis). The verses preserved on the Rhodian ostracon are not included in the Anthologia Graeca. It would be tempting to assume that the surface of the ostracon was used for writing down a hasty and incomplete draft of a poet’s original creation. However, it seems more likely that we are dealing with the copy of an already existing text. The style and content of the Rhodian erotic epigram, which is written in the Ionic dialect, do not offer internal evidence concerning the poet’s identity. The phrase τὴν τότε παννυχίδα is found in Posidippus, the phrase ἀνέθηκεν ὁρᾶσθαι τοῖς φιλέρωσιν finds a good parallel in the Callimachean ἀνέθηκεν ἐπεσσομένοισιν ὁρᾶσθαι, the word φίλερως was used by Meleager, and the phrase καὶ σὺ δέχου is found in two Byzantine epigrams (Julian and Agathias). But these phrases alone could not indicate Posidippus or Callimachus as the potential composer of our epigram. Besides, the metric sequence dddsd in the third verse, where a spondee occurs before the bucolic diaeresis (Naeke’s law), is almost prohibitive in the Hellenistic epigram, with the exception of one verse of Asclepiades of Samos, one verse of Posidippus and another of Leonides. Moreover, a word-break after the first short syllable of the fourth foot is rare. Therefore, it is more likely that the composer of our epigram is either a poet of the third century B.C., from whom Posidippus borrowed the phrase τὴν τότε παννυχίδα, or a poet of the third or the early second century B.C., who borrowed that phrase from Posidippus. We might be entitled to conclude that the reference to a Samian hetaira could indicate a Samian epigrammatist, such as Asclepiades or Hedylus. First, Asclepiades influenced Posidippus, Hedylus and Callimachus. The metrical sins in l. 1 and 3 present a strong counter argument to our hypothesis that Asclepiades could be the poet in question, even though the violation of Naeke’s law occurs once in Asclepiades’ poems. However, there exist some other evidence that fits Asclepiades’ vocabulary, style and themes: he had composed another erotic epigram on Samian hetairai (AP 5.207), he had used phrases that refer to Homer (cf. for instance the Homeric ἐν πίνακι on the Rhodian ostracon), and to other lyric poets (cf. the phrase ἀποτίθεμαι ἔρωτα, which refers to Theognis, the adjective ἡδύπικρος and the participle θέλουσα, which refer to the Sapphic γλυκύπικρος and κωὐκ θέλοισα respectively). Moreover, Asclepiades includes technical terms that have a poetic dimension (such as the legal phrase τάσσω λύσιν in the Rhodian epigram) and creates new words by changing one component of an already existing known poetic word (for example the word ἡδυπίκρους instead of γλυκυπίκρους). Finally, some words of our epigram are placed in the same metrical position as in other epigrams of Asclepiades. More precisely, in the AP 5.207, αἱ Σάμιαι are cited in the beginning of the epigram at the start of the first verse, just like ἡ Σαμίη in the Rhodian epigram. In the case of AP 5.202, 6, attributed to Asclepiades or Posidippus, the pronoun τήνδε occurs in the same position in the pentameter of the third elegiac couplet. The composer of our epigram creates an alliteration of Δ καὶ σὺ δέχου θίασον τῆς ση… τάξας Π̣απυλίδῃ τήνδε λύσιν δακρύων (which becomes stronger if we restore Ἄδωνι or Διόνυσε in the missing part). Alliteration is a characteristic feature of Asclepiades, such as the alliteration of Λ in the epigram AP 5.164, 3 and the alliteration of X in the epigram AP 5.162, 2-3. Moreover, the way Asclepiades treats love can be traced in the Rhodian epigram: there is no sign of erotic lust, heterosexual love dominates the epigram and the intense erotic feelings are ridiculed. Finally, the composition of short epigrams (usually of two distichs, but also some of three distichs) is characteristic in Asclepiades. In addition, the adjective ἡδυπίκρους combined with the name Παπ-υλ-ίδης might suggest a word play with the name Hedylus. This could support the hypothesis that either Hedylus, also from Samos, was the composer of the epigram, if we accept that he made a word play with his name, or one of his circle and friends (e.g. Asclepiades) played with his name. All these observations do not exclude the assumption that the epigram on the ostracon was a composition which imitated well known Hellenistic themes (e.g. of hetaira) and styles (e.g. of Asclepiades, Hedylus or Posidippus). Finally, the archaeological context of the ostracon is not indicative of its use and purpose and cannot explain why and how a Samian woman could be of interest in Rhodes.

Abstract. The works of Ukrainian neoclassicists as the representatives of the era of «Executed Renaissance», who left an invaluable heritage and made a tremendous contribution to the enrichment of not only Ukrainian but also world literature, have repeatedly become the subject of scholars’ research. The purpose of the study is to analyze the sonnet as a phenomenon that appeared in the first third of the last century: what caused its «rigidity» and «severity», as well as what is its poetic beauty. Materials and methods of research. This article is based on the analysis of archival materials, letters, memoirs, the press of the twenties («Chervonyi Shliakh», «Nova Hromada», etc.), published and unpublished editions of works by Ukrainian neoclassicists. The severity of life dictated its own rules, its own style and its own norms. Sonnets of Ukrainian neoclassicists were also rigit or «strict». Comparative-historical and descriptive methods are used in the work. Discussion. The representatives of the informal society «neoclassicism», which was formed in Ukraine in the 20s of the 20th century, professed an aesthetic concept of spiritual renewal of the writer’s consciousness and the nation in general, disciplined the cardiocentric element of the «executed Renaissance» generation of artists, combining the Dionysian tradition with the Apollonian culture. The aesthetic platform that united the neoclassicists was the love to the word, to the strict form, to the great heritage of the world literature. They realized the sonnet as a «strict style», as a «severe» form. Ukrainian neoclassicists set the task of creating a «great style of Ukrainian literature» based on Greco-Roman antiquity and European Parnassians; hence there is a cult of strict classical forms (sonnet, octave, Alexandrine verse, elegiac distich). When Ukrainian neoclassicists spoke, they did not declaim ideological and aesthetic manifestos. Ukrainian neoclassicists, in contrast to the Russian ones, were distinguished by greater creative conservatism: if the latter put Pushkin as a role model, the first were oriented towards Greco-Roman antiquity and French Parnassians (the first edition of Ukrainian neoclassicism was «The Anthology of Roman Poetry» by M. Zerov, 1920), strictly adhered to canonical classical forms. Conclusions. The genre canon of the sonnet implies conceptuality that must be realized through a certain compositional rhythm according to the universal scheme: thesis – antithesis – synthesis. Such scheme of the sonnet dramatic line development «tells» the poet the most general direction in the development of thought, mood, and contemplation. The sonnet allows to resolve contradictions. Consequently, it is a balance between the stable and the variable, a dialogue with yourself, with the world; this is the beauty of dramatic trembles of poetic content. Finally, this is a distinctive stylistic thinking which attracts primarily the poets of the rationalist mindset.

Abstract This paper traces the enjambment techniques employed by Hellenistic and Latin authors at the end of the elegiac couplet. While the Alexandrians make deliberate use of enjambment at the end of the pentameter, in later Hellenistic and in Latin epigram there is a discernible movement toward a unity of syntax and metre, as testified by the poets’ tendency to avoid enjambment between distichs. The earliest Latin epigrammatists loyally render their Greek contemporaries’ aesthetics. Catullus, in his turn to Callimachean poetics, at times employs enjambment in this position, especially in elegy (as opposed to epigram). These techniques are largely abandoned by the Augustan poets, who rigidly introduce epigrammatic avoidance of enjambment into longer elegiac poems; among them, only Propertius in his fourth book rarely uses it as a stylistic means.

In his little-known 1539 collection of epigrams, Jacques Delaunay (Jacobus Alnetus), a physician and canon of Saint-Étienne de Troyes, includes two important, and hitherto unnoticed, poetic exchanges between the monastic humanist poets Jean Dampierre and Nicolas de Marconville and himself. After a brief presentation of these two figures, the present article examines the principal themes and literary techniques characteristic of the poems that comprise the two poetic “correspondences” with Delaunay. Examination of these two separate sequences reveals several common, unifying themes. The relative (perceived) impoverishment of their poetic invention, and the deep anguish that it generates, constitutes a recurring motif, and a veritable preoccupation, for these poets, all of whom speak of the challenges posed by duties that distract them from cultivating the muse. Their collective meditation on these themes quietly elaborates a defense of the dignity of minor poetic genres such as the epigram in hendecasyllables or elegiac distichs, insofar as these genres often give voice to relations of friendship, love, and Christian solidarity.

Literature is consists of various genres of written works by genius minds of the world, which includes poetry, prose, drama, short stories, fiction and essays. Every genre is famous for its specific characteristics. Poetry is one of the most considerable genre of literature. Poetry is divided into various forms like lyric, ballad, ode, sonnet, epic, satire, and elegy. The elegy began as an ancient Greek metrical form and is traditionally written in response to the death of the person or group. Though similar in function, the elegy is distinct from the epitaph, ode, and eulogy. An elegy is a poem that reflects upon death or loss traditionally it contains themes of mourning loss and reflection however it can also explore themes of redemption and consolation. The word elegy originated from the Greek word "elegeia" which means to lament or to be sorrowful. In short the elegy is a lament, a lyric of mourning or an utterance of personal bereavement and sorrow and therefore it should be characterized by absolute sincerity of emotion and expression.

In the vast expanse of classical Arabic literature, the works of Abū Dhu’ayb al-Hudhalī stand out, particularly his elegies, which provide a pro-found glimpse into the sociocultural dynamics of his era. The research presented in this article delves deep into the life and artistry of Abū Dhu’ayb, meticulously examining how his personal experiences and surroundings shaped his poetic expressions. Elegies, often characterized by their mournful tone and reflective nature, become especially significant in Abū Dhu’ayb’s repertoire as they offer poetic lamentations and provide insight into the world in which he lived. The subject of this research focuses on Abū Dhu’ayb’s elegies, providing an in-depth literary analysis, and aiming to discern the intricate interplay between his life’s events and his poetic manifestations. By situating Abū Dhu’ayb’s elegies within the broader canvas of classical Arabic poetry, this research seeks to shed light on their distinct characteristics, thematic concerns, and stylistic nuances. Within the scope of this article, special attention is given to his deeply moving elegy dedicated to his sons. Drawing from a wide spectrum of his poems, we ensure a comprehensive understanding of Abū Dhu’ayb’s unique approach to the art of elegy. The rationale for this inquiry becomes particularly salient when we position Abū Dhu’ayb within the milieu of his literary peers. Although numerous poets of his era ventured into the domain of elegy, Abū Dhu’ayb’s compositions stand apart, characterized by their intimate resonance and the intricate threads of narrative woven seamlessly into his poetic tapestry. Engaging with overarching themes of fate, destiny, honor, and the human condition, his works do more than just lament the loss of loved ones or ponder the transient nature of life. Through this research, we aim to elevate the understanding of Abū Dhu’ayb’s contribution to Arabic literature and underscore the importance of his elegies as both literary mas-terpieces and historical documents. The primary purpose of this study is twofold. Firstly, it seeks to explore the artistic depth and breadth of Abū Dhu’ayb’s elegies, understanding their thematic richness and linguistic excellence. Secondly, the study aims to draw connections between the poet’s life—a life replete with its share of joys, sorrows, triumphs, and tribulations—and the elegies he crafted. By doing so, the research offers a holistic view of the poet, not just as a literary figure but also as a person deeply affected by the world around him. The methodological framework employed in this research is rooted in both literary analysis and historical contextualization. By closely reading Abū Dhu’ayb’s elegies, the research deciphers their symbolic and metaphorical elements, laying bare the poet’s craft. Concurrently, by positioning these elegies within their historical context, the study provides a broader understanding of the socio-political and cultural milieu of Abū Dhu’ayb’s era. This dual approach ensures a well-rounded exploration, enabling readers to appreciate the elegies both as individual pieces of art and as part of a larger poetic tradition. The research methodology used in this study involves a combination of literary analysis and historical contextualization.

In this essay, we propose to study three recent Australian landscape memoirs – Tim Winton’s Island Home (2015), Mark Tredinnick’s The Blue Plateau (2009) and Germaine Greer’s White Beech (2013) – all of which demonstrate the capacity of landscapes to act as perceptual conduits for the fundamental tension between world and self. Our main contention is that landscape memoir acts as a pre-eminent vehicle for this tension, which is captured across different times and spaces and among multiple, intricately co-constituted life-worlds. Landscape memoir, in this and other ways, functions as both a multi-sensory phenomenological instrument for the recording of physical and emotional engagement with landscape and a distinct, episodically organised mode of life writing that seeks to understand the fractured nature of individual selfhood in the context of a more-than-human world. The essay also looks at the capacity of memoirs of this kind to operate as vehicles for conservationist thinking and action. In each of our three main cases, landscape mediates between an insecure self and a world or worlds that are portrayed as being threatened, although this is not enough in itself to establish a basis for the three works as ‘conservationist’ texts. However, all three can be seen as individual enquiries into different kinds of conservation that use the techniques and characteristics of landscape memoir to reflect on the material possibilities of personal and collective recovery (Winton) and ecological restoration (Greer); or, over and against these, to mark the elegiac registration of irretrievable loss (Tredinnick).