Political verse
Encyclopedia
Political verse also known as Decapentasyllabic verse (from Greek dekapentasyllabos, δεκαπεντασύλλαβος, lit. '15-syllable') is a metric form in Modern Greek
poetry. It is an iambic
verse of fifteen syllables and has been the main meter
of traditional popular and folk poetry since the Byzantine
period. Its name is unrelated to the concept of "politics" and does not imply political content of a poem; rather, it derives from the original meaning of the Greek word πολιτικός, 'civil', meaning that it was originally a form used for secular, non-religious poetry. It is also called “ημαξευμένοι στίχοι” (running-like-a-chariot-on-a-paved-road verses, because the words “flow” freely like a running chariot).
The term "political" has nothing to do with "politics
". Political also means in Greek "civil" and at the time it had the meaning "of the people" . The term appears as early as in the 11th century, and it had probably been in use earlier. The first use of political verse in writing is attributed to John Tzetzes
. His Book of Histories (Chiliades), in 12.000 verses, is written in political verse has the title: "Ιωάννου του Τζέτζου βιβλίον ιστορικόν το δια στίχων πολιτικών, άλφα καλούμενον..." (By John Tzetzes, book of histories in political verses, called alpha..."). A short "admonitory" poem of his contemporary, Michael Psellos
to the emperor Constantine IX Monomachos
is titled: ΣΤΙΧΟΙ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΟΙ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΑ ΚΥΡΟΝ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΝ ΤΟΝ ΜΟΝΟΜΑΧΟΝ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΙΚΗΣ (Political verses to the emperor kyr (Sire) Constantine Monomachos on Grammar).
Earlier examples can be found in the older Greek poetry that used metres based on prosody, as in the poetry of Gregory of Nazianzus
(4th century) and even earlier. Examples can be found even in some Homeric verses, but it isn't clear if that occurrence was intentional or incidental.
, normally (and in accordance with the ancient Greek
poetical tradition) the Political verse is without rhyme
. So it is a type of blank verse
of iambic heptameter. The meter consists of lines made from seven (“hepta”) feet plus an unstressed syllable. There is a standard cesura (pause in the reading of a line of a verse that does not affect the metrical account of the timing) after the eighth syllable. Rhyme occurs only rarely, especially in the earlier folk songs and poems. Later examples, especially in personal poetry and in songwriting there is rhyme.http://www.troianova.com/article2mantinades.htm. In those cases the rhyme scheme
is more commonly that of the couplet
: aa, or, aa bb cc dd ...etc.
Each fifteen-syllable verse can be regarded or examined as a "distich" of two verses, one eight-syllable and one seven-syllable.
Its form looks as follows:
U - | U - | U - | U - || U - |U - | U - | U
Until the 14th century, the half-foot could begin with two anapests instead of three iambs (Kambylis, A. 1995. Textkritik und Metrik: Überlegungen zu ihrem Verhältnis zueinander. Byzantinische Zeitschrift 88: 38–67):
U U - | U U - | U - || U - |U - | U - | U
U - | U - | U - | U - || U U - | U U - | U
To this day, each half-foot can also begin with a trochee
; this is called choriamb
ic, by comparison to its ancient metrical counterpart.
- U | U - | U - | U - || U - |U - | U - | U
- U | U - | U - | U - || - U |U - | U - | U
(Το γεφύρι της Άρτας):
The structure of each verse follows closely that convention: in the first part of each verse (the first eight syllables) the main theme of the verse is introduced, in the "main clause" of the verse. That It could be a statement, part of a dialogue, or a depiction of some action. Then on the next, seven-syllable, part after the cesura, the main clause is reinforced, or additional information is provided. Either by been explained, or completed, or supplemented, or quite often the theme of the main clause is amplified by been repeated or restated in other words.
Political verses
are usually, but not exclusively, organized in pairs (thus forming “stanzas” of two lines, known as distichs or couplets). The poem can be as short as a single two-line stanza, or as long as the poet wishes. Some of the early narrative poems consist of thousands of lines. In the case of such "distichs" the second verse shows the same structure with the first, except that it isn't introducing the theme of the main clause, but it completes it. Again
As it is apparent each one verse and each main clause of the verses are meaningful by themselves, with the second parts of the verses being of an explanatory nature.
As it is apparent from the description of the "technique" behind the political verse, each verse is consisted of a main clause and something like a non-defining (non-restrictive) relative clause
.
It is true that sometimes the cesura is not after the eighth syllable, or there is no cesura at all. That can give some variation to the general rhythm of the poem. Such cases are the exception rather than the rule, and do not seem to be there to provide variation. They seem incidental, or unavoidable, especially in the case of the old narrative "epic" poems.
Yet, the main use of Political verse is not for poems to be recited, but for songs to be sung, and in most cases danced as well. The "monotony" of the recitation, then, disappears in the music and dance, and in that help the movements of the bodies and the musical prosody
(in singing some syllables become long, others are short).
Also, in the case of narrative poems which are the most likely to be recited, the main focus is on their content, the events they narrate. And thus the monotony of the rhythm of the meter is taken aside, by the interest to the story. Moreover the monotonus meter can assist memorization. Originally the political verse was a part of an oral poetical tradition, of a largely illiterate medieval society, that found in them an almost natural way to express itself, in such "down-to-earth", and less "pompous" verses.
Nowadays the most familiar to us use of Political verses is in medieval long narrative “heroic” or "epic" poems, the Acritic songs
epics were, and in traditional folk songs.
Political verses are found in Cretan poems of Sahlikis
, in the Byzantine romance novels after the 12th century, and also in the, usually “spooky”, “paraloges” (a type of narrative Greek folk tales in a song form, comparable with the European Folk Ballad, with a paranormal or macabre content, made of few tens or few hundred lines) like "The Dead Brother's Song
" and throughout in most traditional Greek folk songs, to the present day Greek popular songs.
the type of meter that resembles, somehow, this Greek Political verse is the one called “iambic heptameter” or a “fourteener
”. Such verses can be found in the English poetry, mainly of the 16th century but in other cases as well.
An early example is the first translation into English of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” (1567) - credited to Arthur Golding
.
For example (from Book 2, THE SECONDE BOOKE OF OVIDS METAMORPHOSIS):
Another, later, example is from Lord Byron's Youth and Age:
But in the English poetry each line usually has fourteen syllables (as the English term imply) whereas in Greek poetry the fifteen syllable line is the norm of the Political verse.
" and the 3rd draft of Dionysios Solomos
' "The Free Besieged", considered the masterpiece of modern Greek poetry. It is thought that the political verse replaced, in popularity and also in use, the famous dactylic hexameter
of the ancient Greeks (also known as "heroic hexameter") in later Greek poetry, from the time of the early modern Greek, following the loss of ancient prosody and pitch accent
, being ideally suited to its replacement, stress accent. This metric form comes “natural” in modern Greek (that is the common Greek, spoken after the 9th or 10th century to the present day), and it is extremely easy to form a “poem” or a “distich” in political verse, almost without a thought. In fact it is such a natural meter for the language that one can actually form continually ones' everyday speech in political verse - if one wishes so.
Modern Greek
Modern Greek refers to the varieties of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. The beginning of the "modern" period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic...
poetry. It is an iambic
Iambus (genre)
Iambus was a genre of ancient Greek poetry that included but was not restricted to the iambic meter and whose origins modern scholars have traced to the cults of Demeter and Dionysus. The genre featured insulting and obscene language...
verse of fifteen syllables and has been the main meter
Meter (poetry)
In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
of traditional popular and folk poetry since the Byzantine
Medieval Greek
Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, is the stage of the Greek language between the beginning of the Middle Ages around 600 and the Ottoman conquest of the city of Constantinople in 1453. The latter date marked the end of the Middle Ages in Southeast Europe...
period. Its name is unrelated to the concept of "politics" and does not imply political content of a poem; rather, it derives from the original meaning of the Greek word πολιτικός, 'civil', meaning that it was originally a form used for secular, non-religious poetry. It is also called “ημαξευμένοι στίχοι” (running-like-a-chariot-on-a-paved-road verses, because the words “flow” freely like a running chariot).
History
The political verse flourished from the 9th or 10th century, until the 19th and 20th centuries. It remains in use today, though, mainly by the type of “traditional” folk songs.The term "political" has nothing to do with "politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
". Political also means in Greek "civil" and at the time it had the meaning "of the people" . The term appears as early as in the 11th century, and it had probably been in use earlier. The first use of political verse in writing is attributed to John Tzetzes
John Tzetzes
John Tzetzes was a Byzantine poet and grammarian, known to have lived at Constantinople during the 12th century.Tzetzes was Georgian on his mother's side...
. His Book of Histories (Chiliades), in 12.000 verses, is written in political verse has the title: "Ιωάννου του Τζέτζου βιβλίον ιστορικόν το δια στίχων πολιτικών, άλφα καλούμενον..." (By John Tzetzes, book of histories in political verses, called alpha..."). A short "admonitory" poem of his contemporary, Michael Psellos
Michael Psellos
Michael Psellos or Psellus was a Byzantine monk, writer, philosopher, politician and historian...
to the emperor Constantine IX Monomachos
Constantine IX Monomachos
Constantine IX Monomachos, Latinized as Constantine IX Monomachus , c. 1000 – January 11, 1055, reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 11, 1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen by the Empress Zoe as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring...
is titled: ΣΤΙΧΟΙ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΟΙ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΑ ΚΥΡΟΝ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΝ ΤΟΝ ΜΟΝΟΜΑΧΟΝ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΙΚΗΣ (Political verses to the emperor kyr (Sire) Constantine Monomachos on Grammar).
Earlier examples can be found in the older Greek poetry that used metres based on prosody, as in the poetry of Gregory of Nazianzus
Gregory of Nazianzus
Gregory of Nazianzus was a 4th-century Archbishop of Constantinople. He is widely considered the most accomplished rhetorical stylist of the patristic age...
(4th century) and even earlier. Examples can be found even in some Homeric verses, but it isn't clear if that occurrence was intentional or incidental.
Form
Each verse is a 15-syllable iambic verseIambus (genre)
Iambus was a genre of ancient Greek poetry that included but was not restricted to the iambic meter and whose origins modern scholars have traced to the cults of Demeter and Dionysus. The genre featured insulting and obscene language...
, normally (and in accordance with the ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
poetical tradition) the Political verse is without rhyme
Rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.-Etymology:...
. So it is a type of blank verse
Blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the sixteenth century" and Paul Fussell has claimed that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."The first...
of iambic heptameter. The meter consists of lines made from seven (“hepta”) feet plus an unstressed syllable. There is a standard cesura (pause in the reading of a line of a verse that does not affect the metrical account of the timing) after the eighth syllable. Rhyme occurs only rarely, especially in the earlier folk songs and poems. Later examples, especially in personal poetry and in songwriting there is rhyme.http://www.troianova.com/article2mantinades.htm. In those cases the rhyme scheme
Rhyme scheme
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyme between lines of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme. In other words, it is the pattern of end rhymes or lines...
is more commonly that of the couplet
Couplet
A couplet is a pair of lines of meter in poetry. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark out couplets if they do not rhyme. Couplets with a meter of iambic pentameter are called heroic...
: aa, or, aa bb cc dd ...etc.
Each fifteen-syllable verse can be regarded or examined as a "distich" of two verses, one eight-syllable and one seven-syllable.
Its form looks as follows:
U - | U - | U - | U - || U - |U - | U - | U
Until the 14th century, the half-foot could begin with two anapests instead of three iambs (Kambylis, A. 1995. Textkritik und Metrik: Überlegungen zu ihrem Verhältnis zueinander. Byzantinische Zeitschrift 88: 38–67):
U U - | U U - | U - || U - |U - | U - | U
U - | U - | U - | U - || U U - | U U - | U
To this day, each half-foot can also begin with a trochee
Trochee
A trochee or choree, choreus, is a metrical foot used in formal poetry consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one...
; this is called choriamb
Choriamb
In Greek and Latin poetry, a choriamb is a metron consisting of four syllables in the pattern long-short-short-long , that is, a trochee alternating with an iamb. Choriambs are one of the two basic metra that do not occur in spoken verse, as distinguished from true lyric or sung verse...
ic, by comparison to its ancient metrical counterpart.
- U | U - | U - | U - || U - |U - | U - | U
- U | U - | U - | U - || - U |U - | U - | U
Example
A typical example of the use of Political verse in Greek folk poetry is the beginning of the ballad The Bridge of ArtaBridge of Arta
The Bridge of Arta is a stone bridge that crosses the Arachthos river near the city of Arta in Greece. The bridge became famous from the eponymous legendary folk ballad, which is at the core about human sacrifice...
(Το γεφύρι της Άρτας):
Technique and Structure
The "mechanics" of Political verse is rather straightforward: the verse has a more or less strict form and deviations from it are usually incidental, or the exception than the rule.The structure of each verse follows closely that convention: in the first part of each verse (the first eight syllables) the main theme of the verse is introduced, in the "main clause" of the verse. That It could be a statement, part of a dialogue, or a depiction of some action. Then on the next, seven-syllable, part after the cesura, the main clause is reinforced, or additional information is provided. Either by been explained, or completed, or supplemented, or quite often the theme of the main clause is amplified by been repeated or restated in other words.
Political verses
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
are usually, but not exclusively, organized in pairs (thus forming “stanzas” of two lines, known as distichs or couplets). The poem can be as short as a single two-line stanza, or as long as the poet wishes. Some of the early narrative poems consist of thousands of lines. In the case of such "distichs" the second verse shows the same structure with the first, except that it isn't introducing the theme of the main clause, but it completes it. Again
As it is apparent each one verse and each main clause of the verses are meaningful by themselves, with the second parts of the verses being of an explanatory nature.
Grammar and Language
The language used with Political verse is of an utilitarian, frugal, type: Nouns, verbs, linking words and pronouns. Adjectives and adverbs are largely absent. That makes the verses much "down-to-earth", and less "pompous".As it is apparent from the description of the "technique" behind the political verse, each verse is consisted of a main clause and something like a non-defining (non-restrictive) relative clause
Relative clause
A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun phrase, most commonly a noun. For example, the phrase "the man who wasn't there" contains the noun man, which is modified by the relative clause who wasn't there...
.
Ethos: mood and feeling
The "ethos of music" was the term given to describe the effect on character or mood. Political verses when recited for long can be rather monotonous to a modern audience. That is because their form is strict and does not vary greatly from verse to verse. Always the same meter of fifteen-syllable iambic verses, with the cesura after the eighth syllable, on and on. Maybe that is why the Political verses do not regularly identify with rhyme. Regular rhyme can only make their recitation duller and more monotonous.It is true that sometimes the cesura is not after the eighth syllable, or there is no cesura at all. That can give some variation to the general rhythm of the poem. Such cases are the exception rather than the rule, and do not seem to be there to provide variation. They seem incidental, or unavoidable, especially in the case of the old narrative "epic" poems.
Yet, the main use of Political verse is not for poems to be recited, but for songs to be sung, and in most cases danced as well. The "monotony" of the recitation, then, disappears in the music and dance, and in that help the movements of the bodies and the musical prosody
Prosody (music)
In music, Prosody is the way the composer sets the text of a vocal composition in the assignment of syllables to notes in the melody to which the text is sung. For example, a songwriter might align downbeats or accents with stressed syllables or important words....
(in singing some syllables become long, others are short).
Also, in the case of narrative poems which are the most likely to be recited, the main focus is on their content, the events they narrate. And thus the monotony of the rhythm of the meter is taken aside, by the interest to the story. Moreover the monotonus meter can assist memorization. Originally the political verse was a part of an oral poetical tradition, of a largely illiterate medieval society, that found in them an almost natural way to express itself, in such "down-to-earth", and less "pompous" verses.
Use
It seems that the Political verse was used in folk and personal (lyric) poetry alike. For every kind of poems. Love poems, laments, epigrams, admonitory (didactic) and narrative poems.Nowadays the most familiar to us use of Political verses is in medieval long narrative “heroic” or "epic" poems, the Acritic songs
Acritic songs
The Acritic songs are the heroic or epic poetry that emerged in the Byzantine Empire probably in the 9th century. The songs celebrated the exploits of the Akrites, the frontier guards defending the eastern borders of the Byzantine Empire. The historical background was the almost...
epics were, and in traditional folk songs.
Political verses are found in Cretan poems of Sahlikis
Stephanos Sahlikis
Stephanos Sahlikis or Sachlikis , was a Cretan from Handax lawyer and poet who wrote satyrical poems in vernacular Greek....
, in the Byzantine romance novels after the 12th century, and also in the, usually “spooky”, “paraloges” (a type of narrative Greek folk tales in a song form, comparable with the European Folk Ballad, with a paranormal or macabre content, made of few tens or few hundred lines) like "The Dead Brother's Song
The Dead Brother's Song
The Dead Brother's Song is a Greek poem, considered to be the oldest surviving dimotikó song of the Greek music.-History:The song was composed in Asia Minor in the 9th century, during the time of the Byzantine Empire....
" and throughout in most traditional Greek folk songs, to the present day Greek popular songs.
Analogies in English Poetry
In English poetryEnglish poetry
The history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in Western culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is...
the type of meter that resembles, somehow, this Greek Political verse is the one called “iambic heptameter” or a “fourteener
Fourteener
In mountaineering terminology in the United States, a fourteener is a mountain that exceeds 14,000 feet above mean sea level. There are 547 fourteeners in the world. The importance of fourteeners is greatest in Colorado, which has the majority of such peaks in North America...
”. Such verses can be found in the English poetry, mainly of the 16th century but in other cases as well.
An early example is the first translation into English of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” (1567) - credited to Arthur Golding
Arthur Golding
Arthur Golding was an English translator of more than 30 works from Latin into English. While primarily remembered today for his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses because of its influence on Shakespeare's works, in his own time he was most famous for his translation of Caesar's Commentaries, and...
.
For example (from Book 2, THE SECONDE BOOKE OF OVIDS METAMORPHOSIS):
The Princely Pallace of the Sunne stood gorgeous to beholde
On stately Pillars builded high of yellow burnisht golde,
Beset with sparckling Carbuncles that like to fire did shine.
Another, later, example is from Lord Byron's Youth and Age:
'Tis but as ivy-leaves around the ruin'd turret wreathe,
All green and wildly fresh without, but worn and gray beneath.
But in the English poetry each line usually has fourteen syllables (as the English term imply) whereas in Greek poetry the fifteen syllable line is the norm of the Political verse.
Importance
The Political verse characterizes the traditional Greek poetry, especially between 1100 and 1850. It is the verse in which most Greek folk songs are written, including such temporally distant works as the medieval Cretan romance "ErotokritosErotokritos
Erotokritos is a romance composed by Vikentios Kornaros in early 17th century Crete. It consists of 10,012 fifteen-syllable rhymed verses....
" and the 3rd draft of Dionysios Solomos
Dionysios Solomos
Dionysios Solomos was a Greek poet from Zakynthos. He is best known for writing the Hymn to Liberty , of which the first two stanzas, set to music by Nikolaos Mantzaros, became the Greek national anthem in 1865...
' "The Free Besieged", considered the masterpiece of modern Greek poetry. It is thought that the political verse replaced, in popularity and also in use, the famous dactylic hexameter
Dactylic hexameter
Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme. It is traditionally associated with the quantitative meter of classical epic poetry in both Greek and Latin, and was consequently considered to be the Grand Style of classical poetry...
of the ancient Greeks (also known as "heroic hexameter") in later Greek poetry, from the time of the early modern Greek, following the loss of ancient prosody and pitch accent
Pitch accent
Pitch accent is a linguistic term of convenience for a variety of restricted tone systems that use variations in pitch to give prominence to a syllable or mora within a word. The placement of this tone or the way it is realized can give different meanings to otherwise similar words...
, being ideally suited to its replacement, stress accent. This metric form comes “natural” in modern Greek (that is the common Greek, spoken after the 9th or 10th century to the present day), and it is extremely easy to form a “poem” or a “distich” in political verse, almost without a thought. In fact it is such a natural meter for the language that one can actually form continually ones' everyday speech in political verse - if one wishes so.