Alkean stanza

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The Alkean stanza is an ancient stanza form named after the Greek poet Alkaios , which has been copied frequently in German poetry. It is a four-line odenstrophe , the first two verses of which have 11, the third 9 and the fourth 10 syllables, whereby the first two verses have a caesura after the fifth syllable. The scheme of the ancient stanza is in metric notation :

× —◡— × ‖ —◡◡ — ◡ ×
× —◡— × ‖ —◡◡ — ◡ ×
× —◡— × —◡— ×
—◡◡ — ◡◡ — ◡— ×

So three different meter measures are used, which are called Alkean meter measures after the stanza , in detail:

Ancient seal

The Alkaean stanza was used in Greek poetry by Alkaios and Sappho and later incorporated into Latin poetry by Horace , in whose odes it is the most common stanza form. An example (Horace, Odes 1,37):

Antehac nefas, de promere Caecubum
cellis avitis, dum Capitolio
Regina dementis ruinas
funus et Imperio parabat.

In the German translation by KF Preiß:

It used to be a crime
to fetch the Cäcuber from the ancestral vault, since
the Queen
threatened the Capitol and Reiche with overthrow full of nonsense,

German poetry

Matthäus Apelles von Löwenstern : Alcaische Ode (1644)

In German poetry, the Alkaic stanza is the most frequently reproduced of all ancient ode strophes. It was first used in 1644 by Georg Philipp Harsdörffer ; It became significant for German poetry through Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock , who began his ode production with it in 1747, while faithfully reproducing the ancient model ( An Meine Freunde , An Fanny ). Following his example, numerous poets such as Ludwig Hölty or August von Platen used the stanza; Friedrich Hölderlin's numerous Alkaean odes (including An die Parzen , Abendphantasie , Die Heimat , Der Neckar ) are considered to be the highlights of German ode poetry. The 19th century produced comparatively few Alkean odes; In the 20th century, the stanza form was chosen by Rudolf Alexander Schröder , Josef Weinheber and Friedrich Georg Jünger ( The Water Lilies ), among others .

meter

The Alkaic stanza is mostly realized in German poetry by clearly emphasizing or unstressing the syllables, which are either long or short in the ancient model. In metric notation:

◡ — ◡ — ◡ ‖ —◡◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡ ‖ —◡◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡ — ◡ — ◡
—◡◡ — ◡◡ — ◡ — ◡

As an example, the fourth stanza from Wilhelm Waiblinger's source of the nymph Egeria in Nemi :

To die of loyalty! Most beautiful thought you,
long fled from our days
into the realm of poetry, into the times when
men learned it from gods.

Deviations from this scheme occur when authors try to reproduce the ancient model as precisely as possible, such as Johann Heinrich Voss and August von Platen . The fifth stanza of Platen's Brunelleschi :

Treasure diggers, Rome's scornful mob scolded you,
you and Donato, your tried and tested friend,
Des art first
carved the male soul character into shapeless stones .

Here are some places, based on the ancient model, which are occupied with a light, unstressed syllable in the stanza scheme of the German replica, with a heavy syllable:

——◡—— ‖ —◡◡ — ◡—
——◡ — ◡ ‖ —◡◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ ——— ◡ — ◡
—◡◡ — ◡◡ — ◡——

caesura

The caesura of the two alkaean elf silvers opening the stanza is often not observed in their German replica, for example in the second stanza of Georg Britting's Mantua :

Palaces, empty. The princes Gonzaga - dead.
And rode the stone stairs steeply
into the bedchamber. The white women,
blushing, listened to the sound of their hooves.

Although the third and fourth verses of the stanza do not have a prescribed, fixed caesura, there is often an incision either after the fourth syllable (in both verses) or after the sixth syllable in the third verse, after the seventh syllable in the fourth verse, which leads to a change divide both verses attractively. The second stanza from an ode by Rudolf Alexander Schröder (German odes, first row, 4):

You know, sweetness does not save the fruit: the core has
to prove itself. So save yourselves
only a man's sense,
who are familiar with the duty and sacrifice of quiet, persistent service.

The first two verses show the caesura after the fifth syllable, in the third verse the incision falls behind the fourth syllable, in the fourth behind the seventh.

rhythm

In the Alkaean stanza the movement rises in the first five syllables of the first verse and after the caesura turns into a falling movement. The second verse repeats this up and down, after which in the third verse there is a rise that is twice as long as in the previous rising sections, before the movement falls again in the fourth verse, also here to a double extent. Wolfgang Binder describes the movement of the first two verses as follows: "This rise and fall creates a wave, as it were." And about the third and fourth verses: "If you read them together as if they were two kola of a longer verse, then they repeat the wave movement of the silver eleven: the silver nine rises, the silver ten falls." In summary: "Three waves, the third twice as wide." On the basis of this structure, Walter Hof states: "The Alkaean measure may have four lines, but three parts." The image of the wave has often been used to describe the Alkaic stanza, for example by Moritz Carriere : "The Alkaic stanza is a stormy ebb and flow". Like Binder, Carriere also points out that the prominent part of the three stanza parts is in the middle, at the highest point of the wave (i.e. around the caesura in the first two verses, around the caesura in the third and fourth verse at the end of the third and at the beginning of the fourth) As a result, the Alkean stanza is even less rhyming than other ancient stanzas, since a rhyme contrary to the structure of the stanza would emphasize the sending.

Enjambement

As in all German replicas of ancient stanzas, the enjambement is the rule rather than the exception. Due to the fact that they belong to the same rhythmic unit, the third and fourth verses are particularly closely connected, so that here occasionally at the end of the third verse not even a word closes, as in the third stanza of Josef Weinheber's Alkaios, the poet :

Oh, I would have wanted to say: A man
is necessary. Speak how the word rose
from our fathers. But shame closed
my mouth. I kept it quiet; suffer.

Sentence and sense often flow across the border between two stanzas without hesitation, as Hölderlin's two-stanza ode The Sunset shows:

Where are you? Drunk the soul dawns on me
From all your bliss; for it is just now
that I have listened to how,
full of golden tones , the delightful sun youth plays

his evening song on a heavenly lyre ';
The woods and hills resounded all around.
But far away he has gone to foreign peoples who
still honor him.

language

In its actual use as an ode stanza, the Alkaic stanza is just as indebted to the major themes characteristic of the ode as to the associated elevated, serious language; According to its basic movement, it is suitable for both, as Franz Ficker observes: "In the Alkaic stanza perhaps the highest melodious sound rests; its gait is sustained, and its tone has something uplifting. It is therefore to represent the dignified, the great, the strong, the sublime extremely suitable. " If a poem written in Alkaic stanzas refuses to accept these contents and this language, a parodic effect quickly arises, as in Eduard Mörike's An Philomele :

Forgive!
There is fresh beer in the Jägerschlösschen And bowling evening today: I half promised the High
Court Administrator,
also the notary and the chief forester.

A hymn-like tone is also possible for the Alkaic stanza; The last stanza of Ludwig Theobul Kosegarten's Vanini's hymn realizes it in its purest form :

Shine, ray of light, dignity, highness, how I sing you!
Light, love, life, refreshment, how I celebrate you!
The sum total! All of it!
Only, Eternal, Greatest, Best!

reception

The Alkean stanza is mentioned variously in literature and film.

  • In Theodor Fontane 's first novel, Before the Storm , Hansen-Grell and Lewin hold a conversation about Holderlin and poetry; Hansen-Grell reads Holderlin's An die Parzen , then: "He put the book down and went on without a pause: 'These are Alkaic stanzas, classic in structure and form, and yet they sound romantic in spite of the Orcus and all the shadows. and the world of the gods of classicism. '"

Other seals

In Italian poetry, the Alcaeic stanza was renewed by Gabriello Chiabrera (1552-1638) and used after him by Paolo Antonio Rolli (1687-1765), Giovanni Fantoni (1755-1807) and others. In England there were attempts by Tennyson ( O mighty-mouth'd inventor of harmonies ) and Swinburne .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. s: la: Carmina (Horatius) / Liber I / Carmen XXXVII
  2. ^ KF Preiß, Leipzig 1837, p. 40 books.google ; http://www.gottwein.de/Lat/hor/horc137.php
  3. ^ Wilhelm Waiblinger: Works and Letters. Volume 1: Poems. Published by Hans Koeniger. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1980, p. 214.
  4. August von Platen: Works in two volumes. Volume 1: Poetry. Edited by Kurt Wölfel and Jürgen Link. Winkler, Munich 1982, p. 479.
  5. ^ Georg Britting: Poems 1940–1964. List, Munich 1996, p. 273.
  6. Rudolf Alexander Schröder: Collected works in five volumes. first volume: The Poems. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin / Frankfurt am Main 1952, p. 15.
  7. ^ Wolfgang Binder: Friedrich Hölderlin. Studies. Edited by Elisabeth Binder and Klaus Weimar. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1987, p. 84.
  8. Walter Hof: Hölderlin's style as an expression of his spiritual world. Westkulturverlag Anton Hain, 1954, p. 118.
  9. ^ Moritz Carriere: The poetry. Their essence and their forms. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1884, p. 150.
  10. ^ Moritz Carriere: The poetry. Their essence and their forms. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1884, p. 166.
  11. ^ Josef Weinträger: Alkaios, the poet. In: The German poetry library.
  12. Sunset. In: Friedrich Hölderlin: Complete works. Volume 1, Stuttgart 1946, pp. 255-256.
  13. ^ Franz Ficker: Aesthetics. Heubner, Vienna 1840, p. 419.