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Talk:Iambic trimeter

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Correct scansion of "Atlantikon"?

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Atlantikon, as the intial A has two consonants after it, it should scan long, but its marked as short. why? Colmfinito 19:02, 7 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's short, the 'Muta cum liquida' causes that. --82.131.220.88 (talk) 15:07, 4 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Resolution

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"In tragedy, resolution is fairly uncommon, and substitution occurs almost exclusively to accommodate personal names that otherwise could not fit the meter." - This statement needs a reference. It does not appear to be true. For example, each of the following three successive lines of Euripides has a resolution:

αἰνῶ δὲ Κάδμον, ἄβατον ὃς πέδον τόδε
τίθησι, θυγατρὸς σηκόν· ἀμπέλου δέ νιν
πέριξ ἐγὼ ’κάλυψα βοτρυώδει χλόῃ.

I have therefore deleted the statement. Kanjuzi (talk) 09:54, 6 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Substitution

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  • @Kanjuzi: I have looked up Resolution (meter) and Substitution (poetry), and I have read about Latin and Greek poetry, and it seems that the only "substitution" in regular Latin and Greek iambic trimeter is replacing the first syllable of a foot (except the last foot) by two short syllables. That is resolution. Replacing the first iambus by a trochee (as shown in page Substitution (poetry)) is common in English poetry, but how common is suchlike in Latin and Greek? I feel that the word "substitution" should be removed from the parts of this article that describe Latin and Greek poetry. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 11:34, 6 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Anthony Appleyard: I agree that "substitution" is a bit vague, so it seems a good idea to avoid it. The link Substitution (poetry) is also not helpful, since it refers to a different phenomenon. The current version is better now. However, I would still like it to say (if a reference can be found), as I mentioned on your Talk page, something like "Resolution of the anceps elements in tragedy is rare, except sometimes to accommodate a proper name, but resolution of the long elements is slightly more common." Is that what the textbooks say? Unfortunately I don't have any here right now. Kanjuzi (talk) 17:34, 6 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

"each of two feet"

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This makes no sense as in every line, there are 3 feet, namely 3 iambs. 2601:183:4102:4400:4449:EA49:7D12:15A6 (talk) 22:07, 27 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

No there are in fact six feet in an iambic trimeter, not three. Kanjuzi (talk) 16:44, 5 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]