Dactyllic Hexameter
Dactyllic Hexameter
Dactyllic Hexameter
Some basic definitions:
•Hexameter = Hex (6) + Meter (feet)
•Dactyl = — U U
•Spondee = — —
•Trochee = — U
The Basic pattern for Dactylic Hexameter
— U U │ — U U │ — U U │ — U U │ — U U │ — U
1 2 3 4 5 6
— — | — — | — — | — — │ — U U | — —
Nota Bene: The last two feet will always sound like “Strawberry Shortcake” .
Rules for marking dactylic hexameter:
1) A vowel is “long” if:
•it is followed by two consonants
•it is long by nature (ie: it has a long mark on it)
•it is a diphthong (two vowels pronounced as one)
•“ae” (as in the word “villae”)
•“oe” (as in the word “proelium”)
•“au” (as in the word “aula”)
NOTĀ BENE: If a vowel is not “long” then it must be “short”!
2. Elision (Magistra's nick-name for this is “collision”) happens when any combination of the below items occurs:
The 1st word ends in… AND The 2nd word begins with…
a vowel a vowel
or or
the letter “m” the letter “h”
When you elide, you ignore the end of the 1st word (some people like to cross the end of the first word out…this is ok to do).
3. Oddities and Pitfalls:
•The letters “l” and “r” are liquids…sometimes they don’t count as consonants.
•The letter “j” can be either a consonant (“j”) or a vowel (“i”).
•The letter “u” when following a “q” never counts.
•The Letter “x” is a double consonant (it counts as two consonants)
4. When doing scansion, always write the marks above the Latin words!
5. When doing scansion, always make sure you have all the long marks copied correctly!
6. When doing scansion, always look for elisions first!
7. If something seems wrong with your scansion try to work it backwards…remember the 5th foot always is a dactyl and the 5th & 6th foot have the rhythm of “Strawberry Short Cake”.
8. When reading the meter out loud, the stress (or “ictus”) is always on the first syllable of the foot.