Page:Goethe and Schiller's Xenions (IA goetheschillersx00goetiala).pdf/34

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half-meter. It is called in Greek hephthemimeres ([Greek: hephthêmimerês]) and runs thus:


Caesuras after the third and after the ninth half-meter are rarely used; they occur sometimes in Latin but the latter is regarded as inadmissible in Greek.

Almost as common as the penthemimeres is the caesura between the two short syllables in the third meter; and because it cuts off from the meter a trochee (thus ) it is called [Greek: kata triton trochaion], i. e., the caesura "after the third trochee." It runs thus:


Caesuras after the second trochee are rare and after the fourth are strictly forbidden in Greek metrics.

Finally we must mention the caesura after the end of the fourth measure, which is not uncommon in bucolic poetry, picturing the peaceful life of the ancient Greek cowboys, so different from the cowboys of the American Wild West, and it has therefore received the name, "bucolic