Alcaic

[ al-key-ik ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

pertaining to Alcaeus or to certain meters or a form of strophe or stanza used by, or named after, him.

Alcaic

/ ælˈkeɪɪk /

of or relating to a metre used by the 7th-century bc Greek lyric poet Alcaeus, consisting of a strophe of four lines each with four feet

Origin of Alcaic¹

1620–30; < Late Latin Alcaicus < Greek Alkaïkós, equivalent to Alka ( îos ) Alcaeus + -ikos -ic

Origin of Alcaic¹

C17: from Late Latin Alcaicus of Alcaeus

Virgilius Mars wrote in hexameters; Horatius Flaccus in alcaic, sapphic, and anapestic verse.

As a boy of sixteen, he wrote verses in the Alcaic and Asclepiadeian measures, and soon acquired a considerable mastery over them.

Thus, there is as much artificiality about a stanza of Chinese verse as there is about an Alcaic stanza in Latin.

Somewhat as in the Greek Alcaic, where the penultimate line seems to lift and suspend the Wave that falls over in the last.

Of these, four are in hendecasyllabics, one in the Alcaic and one in the Sapphic stanza.

April 18, 2024petrichor

[pet-ri-kawr]

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