Trochaic septenarius

The name septenarius, meaning "of seven feet", is first used by Cicero, who after quoting some lines of a speech of Hector from Pacuvius's Iliona jokes "I don't know why he is afraid, when he is pouring out such fine septenarii to the sound of the tibiae". In fact, however, the lines he quotes are not trochaic septenarii but the very similar iambic octonarii.[2] The name septenarius is also used twice by the grammarian Diomedes (4th century AD), referring to both the trochaic and the iambic metres.[3] Otherwise it seems to be little used. Bede referred to this metre as the metrum trochaicum tetrametrum.[4]

The term quadratus "square" is used by both Terentianus and Diomedes to describe a metre of any type which had four complete metra, in other words an octonarius.[5] Thus Diomedes says that trochaic verse was of two kinds, septenarius and quadratus.[6] However, in modern usage the term versus quadratus is sometimes used to refer to the kind of popular trochaic septenarius in which often the line was divided into four parts.[7]

In early Latin, in the comedies of Plautus and Terence, the trochaic septenarius is one of the two commonest metres (the other being the iambic senarius). The metre is relatively free, and even the elements which are short in Greek are often represented by long syllables; but when they are long, these are usually unaccented so as to maintain the basic rhythm.[8] The basic shape of the line is therefore:

| – x – x | – x – x || – x – x | – u – |

Often a long or anceps element (except immediately before the end of the verse or hemistich) is resolved into two short syllables, as with ego and ubi below. The style is very conversational; elision is frequent and often there is no pause or break in sense between the two halves of the line. An example from Plautus's Captivi is the following:[9]

I(am) ĕgŏ revertār / intrō, s(ī) ex hīs // quae vol(ō) exquī/sīverō.
ŭbĭ sunt istī / quōs ant(e) aedīs // iuss(ī) hūc prōdū/cī forās?

| uu u – – | – – – – || – u – – | – u – |
| uu – – – | – – – – || – – – – | – u – |

"Now I shall go back inside, to see if I can find out from these people what I want.
Where are those people I ordered to be brought out here in front of the house?"

The second line above consists mostly of spondees (– –) instead of trochees (– u), but in most septenarii, the word accents are arranged so that the 2nd, 6th and 10th positions, where in Greek a short syllable would be placed, if they are long, are unaccented (Meyer's law).[10]

In Plautus the line quite often ended with a two-syllable word, such as forās above. If so the 12th element had to be long (the Bentley-Luchs law). In later centuries, as coincidence of word accent and metre became increasingly important, two-syllable words in the final position became increasingly rare.[10]

Sometimes in early Latin there was no break after element 8, as in the following line of Terence:

quōqu(ō) hīnc aspor/tābitur ter/rārum, certumst / persequī[11]

| – – – – | – u – – | – – – – | – u – |

"Whichever country she is transported off to from here, I shall certainly follow her"

The trochaic septenarius metre was used not only in comedies but also in early Latin tragedies by authors such as Livius, Naevius, and Ennius. However, these have not survived except for a few lines quoted in other authors. The following example, quoted by Cicero, comes from Ennius's tragedy Alcmaeon:

multīs sum modī(s) / circumventus, // morb(ō) exili(ō) atqu(e) / inopiā.
tum pavōr sapi/enti(am) omnem // exanimāt(ō) ex/pectorāt.

| – – – uu | – – – – || – – uu – | uu u – |
| – u – uu | – u – – || – uu – – | – u – |

"I am overwhelmed in many ways, by sickness, exile, and poverty.
Also terror is taking away my courage and removing all wisdom from my breast."

The style of trochaic septenarius used here is very similar to that of Ennius's contemporary Plautus. There is frequent use of elision and resolution, where two short syllables replace a long one. The word modīs is scanned as a pyrrhic (u u), by a process known as brevis brevians which is also frequent in Roman comedy.

A different form of the trochaic septenarius appears to have existed in Rome used in popular sayings and songs. An early example is the following witticism which must have been circulating after the cremation of Lucius Licinius Crassus in 91 BC:

postquam Crassus / carbo factus, // Carbo crassus / factus est

| – – – – | – – – – || – – – – | – u – |

"After Crassus became charcoal, Carbo became fat/dull"

Lines of this kind divided into four sections, with word accent matching the metre, are sometimes known as versus quadrātus ("square verse"). Similar verses are found in several lines of Plautus. Fraenkel gives several examples, such as:[12]

lingua poscit, / corpus quaerit, // animus ōrat, / rēs monēt.[13]

| – u – – | – u – – || – u – – | – u – |

"The tongue demands it, the body requires it, the mind begs for it, the situation demands it."

In some examples, the line is broken after the first and second metron only:

scīs amōrem, / scīs labōrem, // scīs egestā/tem meam.[14]

| – u – – | – u – – || – u – – | – u – |

"You know my love, you know my hard work, you know my poverty."

Several scholars believe that this popular type of septenarius was indigenous to Italy and developed separately from the septenarii of drama.[10] However, Eduard Fraenkel showed that very similar verses existed in Greece also at an earlier date.[12] For example, in his life of Themistocles Plutarch records how a certain paidagogos became inspired at a sacrifice and cried out the following verse:

νυκτὶ φωνήν, / νυκτὶ βουλήν, // νυκτὶ τὴν νί/κην δίδου
nuktì phōnḗn, / nuktì boulḗn, // nuktì tḕn ník/ēn dídou

| – u – – | – u – – || – u – – | – u – |

"At night give voice, at night give council, at night give the victory."

Similar verses divided into four sections are found in Aristophanes, for example:[15]

ἥδομαι γὰρ / καὶ γέγηθα // καὶ πέπορδα / καὶ γελῶ
hḗdomai gàr / kaì gégētha // kaì péporda / kaì gelô

| – u – – | – u – u || – u – u | – u – |

"For I'm delighted and I'm thrilled and I've farted and I'm laughing!"

The trochaic septenarius was also used in riddles and children's sayings, such as this one, quoted by an ancient commentator on a line of Horace. It has the threefold division:[10]

habeat scabiem / quisquis ad mē // vēnerit no/vissimus!

| uu – uu – | – u – – || – u – u | – u – |

"May whoever reaches me last have scabies!"

Another example of popular usage is the ribald verse sung by the soldiers at the Gallic triumph of Julius Caesar. Like the early Latin septenarius it uses long syllables in the anceps positions; but it has a strong break in sense between the two halves of the line:[16]

Urbānī, ser/vāt(e) uxōrēs: // moechum calv(um) ad/dūcimus.
aur(um) in Galli(a) / effutuistī; // hīc sūmpsistī / mūtuum.

| – – – – | – – – – || – – – – | – u – |
| – – – u | – uu – – || – – – – | – u – |

"City folk, guard your wives; we're bringing you a bald adulterer.
You (sg.) fucked away your gold in Gaul; here you borrowed it."

The word accents here mostly coincide with the metrical ictus, except in the first metron, where urbáni, with a long stressed syllable on the second element, violates Meyer's law.[10]

In the classical period (1st century BC – 1st century AD), the trochaic septenarius was almost never used in serious poetry. Catullus, Horace, Vergil, Ovid, Petronius, Martial and other poets of the period make no use of it or of any trochaic metre.[17] However, it is found in three short passages[18] by Seneca the Younger in his tragedies. Seneca uses it at moments of religious solemnity, such as in these lines from Phaedra where King Theseus invokes the places of the Underworld:[19]

Pallidī fau/cēs Avernī // vōsque, Taenari/ī specūs,
unda miserīs / grāta Lēthēs // vōsque, torpen/tēs lacūs,
impium rapit(e) / atque mersum // premite perpetu/īs malīs.

| – u – – | – u – – || – u – uu | – u – |
| – u uu – | – u – – || – u – – | – u – |
| – u – uu | – u – – || uu u – uu | – u – |

"O jaws of pale Avernus, and you, Taenarian caves,
water of Lethe, welcome to the wretched, and you, torpid lakes,
seize the impious one, swallow me up and oppress me with everlasting evils!"

Seneca follows the Greek tragic style by always having a short syllable in positions 2, 6, and 10, so that his metron is | – u – x |; the anceps element at positions 4, 8, and 12 is usually long. He makes use of resolution, as in miserīs or rapite in the lines above, and frequently ends the line with a two-syllable word. The word accents only partly follow the rhythm of the metre, coinciding in positions 1, 7, and 9, but elsewhere often falling on an anceps element.

The 2nd-century grammarian Terentianus Maurus used a variety of metres in his book on sounds and metre, among them the trochaic septenarius. The scansion is similar to Seneca's but the subject matter is quite different. Here is a sample in which he speaks of the difference between long and short diphthongs. The word accents partly follow the metre, but in the first metron there is often a clash:

αὐέρυσαν in/quit poēta,// sīc et αὐτάρ / corripit:
Εὔπολιν, πεύ/κην et εὔνουν // aut poēt(am) Εὐ/ριπίδην;
syllabās prī/mās necesse (e)st // ōre raptim / prōmere;
tempus at du/plum manēbit, // nihil obest cor/reptio.
AU tamen ca/pére vidētur // saepe prōduc/tum sonum,
"auspicēs" cum / dīc(o) et "aurum", // sīve Graecus / αὔριον.
mīra nec pu/tanda nōbīs // tālis alter/nātiō (e)st,
dichronon quod / ἄλφα nōtum (e)st, // sīcut Ā nos/trātibus.

| – u uu – | – u – u || – u – – | – u – |
| – u – – | – u – – || – u – – | – u – |
| – u – – | – u – – || – u – – | – u – |
| – u – – | – u – – || – u – – | – u – |
| – u – u | uu u – – || – u – – | – u – |
| – u – u | – u – – || – u – – | – u – |
| – u – – | – u – – || – u – – | – u – |

"ăuerusan,[20] says the poet, and in the same way he also shortens autar ("but"),
Eupolis, peukē,[21] and eunous,[22] or the poet Eurīpidēs.
It's necessary to pronounce the first syllables (of these words) rapidly;
but the syllable-time will still be double; the shortening doesn't prevent that.
However, AU often seems to have a long sound,
when I say āuspices and āurum, or when a Greek says āurion ("tomorrow").
Nor should we think that such an alternation is strange,
since alpha is known to have two lengths, just as A does for us."

A famous example of the metre, but with a very different mood, is the Pervigilium Veneris ("Vigil of Venus"), of uncertain date but possibly 4th century AD. Part of the poem goes as follows:

Ipsa nymphās / dīva lūcō // iussit īre / myrteō.
it puer co/mes puellīs: // nec tamen crē/dī potest
ess(e) Amōrem / fēriātum // sī sagittās / vexerit.
īte, nymphae; / posuit arma, // fēriātus / est Amor! –
crās amet quī / nūnqu(am) amāvit, // quīqu(e) amāvit / crās amet.

| – u – – | – u – – || – u – u | – u – |
| – u – u | – u – – || – u – – | – u – |
| – u – – | – u – – || – u – – | – u – |
| – u – – | uu u – u || – u – u | – u – |
| – u – – | – u – – || – u – – | – u – |

"The goddess herself has ordered the nymphs to go into the myrtle grove;
Her son is going as companion to the girls; but it will be hard to believe
that Love is on holiday if he carries his weapons!
Go, nymphs, he has put down his arms, Love is on holiday! –
Let him love tomorrow who has never loved, and let him who has loved love tomorrow."

A difference between this poem and the Seneca is that there is frequently a word-break not only at the line centre, but also after each metron. There is therefore a high coincidence between the rhythm of the metre and the word-accent. Resolution is only very sparingly used.

Another poet of the 4th century who wrote on springtime in trochaic septenarii was Tiberianus. One of his surviving poems begins as follows:

amnis ībat / inter arva // valle fūsus / frīgidā,
lūce rīdēns / calculōrum, // flōre pictus / herbidō.
caerulās su/perne laurūs // et virecta / myrtea
lēniter mō/tābat aura // blandiente / sībilō;
subtus autem / molle grāmen // flōre pulcrō / crēverat
et crocō so/lum rubēbat // et lūcēbat / līliīs
tum nemus frā/grābat omne // vīolārum / spīritū.

| – u – u | – u – u || – u – – | – u – |
| – u – – | – u – – || – u – u | – u – |
| – u – u | – u – – || – u – u | – u – |
| – u – – | – u – u || – u – u | – u – |
| – u – – | – u – – || – u – – | – u – |
| – u – u | – u – u || – – – – | – u – |
| – u – – | – u – u || – u – – | – u – |

"A stream was going through the fields, flowing down a cool valley,
laughing with the gleam of pebbles, decorated with grassy flowers;
overhead, with soothing whisper, a breeze was gently stirring
the dark-green laurels and the myrtle leaves;
while underfoot, soft grass had grown with beautiful flowers;
the earth was red with saffron and was bright with lilies;
and all the wood was fragrant with the perfume of violets."

In this style of septenarius, many of the anceps syllables are short. The word accent matches the rhythm almost exactly. The scansion is more or less correct by classical standards, part from lucebat and violarum, which normally has a short i.

The 4th century AD poet Ausonius mostly wrote in dactylic or iambic verse; however, there is one short poem in the trochaic metre. It is found in a short work called Septem Sapientium Sententiae "Sayings of the Seven Sages", in which each of the seven famous wise men of antiquity is given seven sayings, in various metres. The following are the seven sayings of Solon of Athens:

Tunc beātum / dīco vītam, // cum perācta / fāta sunt.
Pār parī iu/gātor coniux: // quidquid inpār, / dissidet.
Non erunt ho/nōres umquam // fortuīti / mūneris.
Clam coargu/ās propinquum, // prōpalam lau/dāverīs.
Pulchrius mul/tō (e)st parārī, // quam creārī / nōbilem.
Certa sī dē/crēta sors est, // quid cavēre / prōderit?
Sīve sunt in/certa cūncta, // quid timēre / convenit?

"I call a life happy only when the fates are completed.
A husband should be married to an equal; whatever is unequal, quarrels.
A chance gift will never bring honours.
You should criticise a neighbour secretly, but praise him publicly.
It is much finer thing to be born noble, than to be created noble.
If destiny is fixed, what good will it do to take precautions?
Or if everything is uncertain, what is the use of being afraid?"

In this short poem there are no resolutions, and the word accents match the rhythm very closely. The words however scan correctly in the classical manner.

The trochaic septenarius was also sometimes used in the medieval period for non-Christian writing, such as the Frankish soldier Angelbert's account of the Battle of Fontenoy in 841, which begins:[27]

Aurora cum / primo mane // tetra noctis / dividet,
Sabbati non / illud fuit, // sed Saturni / doleo,
d e fraterna / rupta pace // gaudet demon / impius.

Bella! clamant / hinc et inde // pugna gravis / oritur,
frater fratri / mortem parat, // nepoti a/vunculus;
filius nec / patri suo // exhibet quod / meruit.

"When Dawn early in the morning divided the darkness of the night,
That was not the day of the Sabbath, I grieve, but of Saturn;
Over a broken fraternal peace the impious demon rejoices.

"Wars!" they shout, and from here and there a terrible battle arises;
Brother prepares death for brother, uncle for nephew;
Nor does son show his father the duty that he owes."

Apart from Auróra and nepóti, the word accents here follow the metre. However, in some cases, the short vowels of some words such as gravis, parat, nepoti, oritur, meruit would need to be pronounced long to make the poem scan according to classical prosody.

Very similar in metrical style is a 375-line poem written by the Italian Johannes Hymonides on the occasion of the coronation of the emperor Charles the Bald in 875. It is a reworking of a 4th-century prose-work called the Cena Cypriani, and begins as follows:[28]

Quidam nomi/ne Iohel rex // Orientis, / maximas
In Chana qui / Galileae // faciebat / nuptias,
invitans ad / cenae plures // dignatus fre/quentiam
qui Iordane / se lavantes // currunt ad con/vivia.

"A certain king of the East named Joel
who was making a wedding in Cana of Galilee,
deigned to invite many guests to join the dinner crowd;
who, after washing themselves in the Jordan, ran to the banquet."

This can be scanned according to traditional metrics only by pronouncing certain short vowels as long (nominē, ōrientis, Gālileae, fāciebat), which might be done more easily if the poem was sung to music. As with Secundinus's Audite omnes amantes, in some words the word accent does not match the metre (e.g. invītans, dignātus); but, as with Secundinus's hymn the 7th and 13th syllables are usually accented. Unlike in that hymn, however, there are no instances of hiatus, except occasionally at the central dieresis.

Classical Persian has a large variety of metres, scanned according to syllable quantity. The following metre, used in several odes by the 14th century poet Hafez,[29] is similar to the trochaic tetrameter catalectic:

sīne mālā/māl-e dard ast; / ey deriqā, / marham-ī
del ze tanhā/'ī be jān ā/mad, Xodā-rā, / hamdam-ī

| – u – – | – u – – | – u – – | – u – |

"My breast is brimful of pain; alas, a remedy!
My heart is dying of loneliness, for God's sake, (send) a companion!"

The first line above has a break after eight syllables, but in the second, the break is after the 9th syllable.

The Persian metre above is known by the Arabic name ramal (see Arabic prosody), which is the closest Arabic metre. However, the Arabic ramal is usually either a dimeter or a trimeter with this form:

| x u – – | x u – – | x u – (–) | x2

According to Wright, the tetrameter ramal, identical to the Persian metre above with no anceps elements, is a "late innovation".[30] It appears therefore to have been introduced in imitation of Persian poetry rather than being native to Arabic.

Some famous examples of the catalectic trochaic tetrameter are found in German poetry. One is Friedrich Schiller's Ode to Joy, written in 1785, which was set to music by Beethoven in the last movement of his 9th symphony:

Freude, schöner / Götterfunken, //
Tochter aus E/lysium
Wir betreten / feuertrunken, //
Himmlische, dein / Heiligtum!

"Joy, lovely spark of the gods,
Daughter from Elysium,
We enter, drunk with fire,
heavenly one, thy sanctuary".

Another poem is the Deutschlandlied, which was written by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben in 1841, with the intention that it should be sung to the tune composed by Joseph Haydn in 1797 for an earlier anthem in honour of the Emperor Francis II. The third stanza of this poem is the current German national anthem:

Deutschland, Deutschland / über alles //,
Über alles / in der Welt,
Wenn es stets zu / Schutz und Trutze //
Brüderlich zu/sammenhält.

"Germany, Germany, above everything,
Above everything in the world,
When we always, for protection and defence,
stand together in a brotherly way".

In both of the above examples, the word stress defines the metre, rather than the lengths of the syllables.

An equivalent form is also sometimes found in English verse, as for instance in Tennyson's Locksley Hall, written in 1835.[31]

Comrades, leave me / here a little, // while as yet 't is / early morn:
Leave me here, and / when you want me, // sound upon the / bugle-horn.

Another poem in this metre is Maya Angelou's Equality, which was published in 1990 in her collection I Shall Not Be Moved. It begins:

You declare you / see me dimly //
through a glass which / will not shine,
though I stand be/fore you boldly, //
trim in rank and / marking time.

However, mostly commonly the metre is found in hymn-writing. One famous hymn in this metre is John Wesley's Love Divine, first published in 1747:

Love Divine, all / Loves excelling, //
Joy of Heaven to / Earth come down.
Fix in us thy / humble Dwelling,//
All thy faithful / Mercies crown;

Another is Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, written by John Newton and published in 1779:

Glorious Things of / thee are spoken, //
Zion, city / of our God.
He, whose word can/not be broken, //
Form'd thee for his / own abode.

One of the two tunes used with this hymn is "Austria", written in 1797 by Joseph Haydn, and currently used for the German national anthem (see Deutschlandlied), which is in the same metre.

Another popular hymn is Praise, my soul, the King of heaven, written by Henry Francis Lyte and published in 1834:

Praise, my soul, the / King of heaven; //
To His feet thy / tribute bring.
ransomed healed, re/stored, forgiven, //
who like me his / praise should sing?
Alleluia, / alleluia, //
praise the ever/lasting King.

The Christmas carol Once in Royal David's City by Cecil Frances Alexander was published in 1848. It consists of trochaic lines of 8, 7, 8, 7, 7, 7 syllables; so that the first four lines consist of two septenarii:

Once in royal / David's city //
Stood a lowly / cattle shed, //
Where a mother / laid her baby //
In a manger / for his bed: //
Mary was that / Mother mild,
Jesus Christ her / little Child.

The metre continues to be used for hymns today. A well known example is the Servant Song, which was written in 1977 by Richard Gillard. In this version of the metre, the trochees (– u) have entirely become spondees (– –), set to notes of equal length:

Will you let me / be your servant?[32] //
Let me be as / Christ to you;
pray that I may / have the grace to //
let you be my / servant too.

• Metres of Roman comedy
• Prosody (Greek)
• Trochaic tetrameter

• Scripta sunt caelo duorum Full text and translation by H. J. Thomson of Prudentius's hymn.
• Scripta sunt caelo duorum. Plainsong version of Prudentius's hymn (YouTube).
• Pange lingua gloriosi corporis mysterium, attributed to Thomas Aquinas (plainsong performance).
• The Deutschlandlied.
• The Servant Song by Richard Gillard and Betty Pulkingham (Sunday 7pm Choir)