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Sb70012 Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
Catalectic / acatalectic / hypercatalectic
acatalectic (Gk ‘not lacking a syllable in the last foot’) It denotes, therefore, a metrical line which is complete. If a line lacks one or more unaccented syllables, it is truncated (see catalexis). If a line contains an extra syllable it is then hypercatalectic (or hypermetrical, redundant or extrametrical). In the following stanza from William Blake’s Art and Artists the first line is catalectic, the third acatalectic, and the fourth hypercatalectic:
When Sr Joshua Reynolds died
All Nature was degraded;
The King dropp’d a tear into the Queen’s Ear,
And all his Pictures Faded.
Source: Dictionary of English Literary terms by J. A. Cuddon
Hello,
I have a little difficult question. I can not find the blue written parts in the poem. Would you please be kind enough to help me with that so that we can detect them in the poem?
(I have asked this question in Thefreedictionary but I have not received an answer)
Thank you
When Sr Joshua Reynolds died
All Nature was degraded;
The King dropp’d a tear into the Queen’s Ear,
And all his Pictures Faded.
Source: Dictionary of English Literary terms by J. A. Cuddon
Hello,
I have a little difficult question. I can not find the blue written parts in the poem. Would you please be kind enough to help me with that so that we can detect them in the poem?
(I have asked this question in Thefreedictionary but I have not received an answer)
Thank you
Top answer
Before we start on catalexis, can you divide Blake's lines into feet, and mark the stressed and unstressed syllables?
- Before we start on catalexis, can you divide Blake's lines into feet, and mark the stressed and unstressed syllables?
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3 Answers
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Before we start on catalexis, can you divide Blake's lines into feet, and mark the stressed and unstressed syllables?
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When Sr Joshua Reynolds died
All Nature was degraded;
The King dropp’d a tear into the Queen’s Ear,
And all his Pictures Faded
Dictionary definition: catalectic (Lacking one or more syllables, especially in the final foot)
My assessment: When Sr Joshua Reynolds died (the first line is catalectic beca
All Nature was degraded;
The King dropp’d a tear into the Queen’s Ear,
And all his Pictures Faded
Dictionary definition: catalectic (Lacking one or more syllables, especially in the final foot)
My assessment: When Sr Joshua Reynolds died (the first line is catalectic beca
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sb70012(the first line is catalectic because the word 'died' lacks one syllable)The word 'died' consists of one syllable as it always does in standard English pronunciation. The point about catalexis is that it concerns the number of syllables in a line or foot. That is why I asked you to divide Blake's lines into feet, and to mark the stressed and unstressed
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