Anapaest

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The anapäst [ anaˈpɛːst ] (plural: anapäste ; Greek  ἀνάπαιστος anápaistos "struck backwards"; Latin anapaestus ; in metric formula notation withonIn ancient verse theory, a verse foot consists of an elementum biceps (symbol ◡◡ ) followed by an elementum longum (-), in the metric scheme it is therefore notated with ◡◡ - .

In quantitating ancient poetry, the foot is usually realized by a double abbreviation followed by a long syllable (◡◡ - ́), but can also be formed by two lengths, i.e. spondical (——́). In addition, the relatively rare realizations with splitting in length (◡◡◡́◡, also known as Prokeleusmatikos ) as well as with contraction of the double shortening to length and splitting of the length (-◡́◡, anapaestic dactyl ) are possible. In all cases the length of the anapest is four mores .

The metric opposite of the anapest is the dactyl (- ◡◡ ). The anapaest is to a certain extent a mirrored version of the much more common dactyl, which the Greek name ("struck backwards") refers to.

In the accent seal modern languages, in particular in the German seal the anapaest usually is by two cuts (unstressed syllables) followed by an elevation (stressed syllable) formed (xx x). Since the anapest is ascribed a rising rhythm, similar to the iambus , it was also referred to as a double climber based on a suggestion by Ivo Braak .

Anaesthetic meters

Ancient seal

In Greek metric applied to the anapest dipody , ie the Metron , the basic element anapästischer versification, consists of two feet.

Anapaesthetic meter measures are in ancient metrics:

◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ ◠

◡◡ —◡◡— | ◡◡—

◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ ◠
Often used by Plautus in Roman comedy .
◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ —ˌ ◠

◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ ◠  ‖  ◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ —ˌ ◠

◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ ◠  ‖  ◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ —ˌ ◠

◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ ◠  ‖  ◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ —ˌ ◡◡ ◠

Corresponding to the strongly pronounced rhythm and the urgent, moving rhythm, it appears early in marching and battle songs (Parömiakos, Enoplios ), in processional songs ( Prosodia ), then in drama in Parodos and Exodos , as in Euripides , and very often especially in the comedies of Aristophanes . A series of tetrapodies with a Parömiakos as the final verse is typical .

German poetry

Because of the emphasis on stem syllables, there are relatively few words that are anapaest in themselves. Examples are "Zaube rei ", foreign words like "Direk tion ", "Harmon never " and the word "Ana päst " itself is a anapest, so autologous . However, this rarity of anapaesthetic words does not pose a major problem for the formation of word feet , because the combination of an unstressed functional word (e.g. article ) and a word emphasized on the second syllable (e.g. with an unstressed prefix ) can easily form anapaestic rhythms:

The Be Duerf nis of you ters is purely lichster rhyme .

The fact that the anapest only began to play a (small) role in German poetry at the end of the 18th century cannot be due to the foot of the verse, but rather has to be related to the rhythmic difficulties resulting from the meter. A well-known verse from Friedrich Schiller's ballad Der Taucher (1797) can serve as an example :

And it wal let and they det and brewing set and hisses
◡◡ — ˌ◡◡ — ˌ◡◡ — ˌ◡◡—

If one only looks at the beginning, one would first emphasize “ And es wal let”, that is, begin trochaic, first the verse as a whole with the strong rhythm emphasized by the repetition of “and” in the second half (“and she det and brew set and hisses ”) establishes the anapaestic rhythm. This resistance to the anapest comes from the reluctance to leave two syllables unstressed at the beginning of a period. Similar examples can be found in August Wilhelm Schlegel's play Ion (1803):

On the Lip the pen pure purnen Blü th of pleasure , [...]
So to puff you test me with be rushing writeln delusion

Here, too, according to the natural stress, the first syllable is stronger and therefore there is a tendency to begin trochaic. The solution to the problem is often to shorten the first foot acephalously , that is, at the beginning of the verse only a depression appears. The following verses from Goethe's play Pandora (1807) provide an example of both variants :

All the stars blink with a trembling light,
All invite me to the joys of love,
To seek, to walk the fragrant corridor,
Where yesterday my dearest walked and sang

In the first two verses, the natural emphasis would again be iambic or, with the omission of the “e”, even spondeic (“ All ' blink the stars ...”). The two following verses, on the other hand, begin acephalously (◡ — ◡◡ — ◡◡ — ◡◡—). This frequently practiced practice of making anapaestic verses acephalic (and catalectic ) then gives rise to an ambivalence between anapaestic and amphybrachic interpretation. This can be seen in the example of Paul Celan's famous poem Death Fugue (1944/1945):

Schwar ze milk of Previou hey we trin they ken a bends —◡ — ◡ — ◡◡ — ◡◡ — ◡
We trin they ken with tags and mor gens we trin they ken night ◡ — ◡◡ — ◡◡ — ◡◡ — ◡◡—
We trin ken and trin ken ◡ — ◡◡ — ◡
We look feln a grave in the Lüf th there is not closely ◡ — ◡◡ — ◡◡ — ◡◡ — ◡◡—

Here the third verse can be read, for example, as an acephalic hypercatalectic anapaestic two-lifter (◡ — ˌ◡◡ — ˌ◡) or as a purely amphibrachy (◡ — ◡ˌ◡ — ◡), the second verse as anapaestic as ◡ — ˌ◡◡— ˌ◡◡ — ˌ◡◡ — ˌ◡◡— or catalectically amphibrachy as ◡ — ◡ˌ◡ — ◡ˌ◡ — ◡ˌ◡ — ◡ˌ◡—.

Wolfgang Kayser advocated completely dispensing with the distinction between dactylic / anapesthetic / amphibrachy and generally calling verses with double indentations as dactylic. If one does not want to renounce the distinction between dactylic and anapaestic, one can designate as anapaestic or mixed anapaestic verses that begin with a depression and contain at least one double depression, as purely anapaestic those that contain only double inner depression , whereas those would be dactylic that start with an uplift.

Finally, there is the replica of the ancient septa in the choral stanzas of August von Platen's Comedies and The Political Weekly Room by Robert Eduard Prutz , as well as the exemplary poem Der Anapäst by Josef Weinheber .

English poetry

In English poetry, the Anapaest appeared in popular poetry from the Renaissance onwards, and from the 18th century onwards also in poets such as William Cowper ( Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk , 1782) and Walter Scott . From the poem The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron (1815) an example of anapaestic four-lifters:

The As syr ian came down like a wolf on the fold
And his co horts were gleam ing in purp le and gold
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea
When the blue wave rolls night ly on deep Gali lee .

Anapaesthetic verse appears in Robert Browning ( How they Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix , 1845), William Morris and then especially in Swinburne, for example in Dolores (1866) and in A Song in Time of Revolution (1866). In his epic poem The Wanderings of Oisin (1889), William Butler Yeats , like many other poets of the Victorian era, used mixed Iambic-Anapaestic verses. Among the contemporary poets, Daryl Hine with his long poem In and Out (1975/1989) and Annie Finch should be mentioned .

If anapaesthetic meter readings remain marginal in “serious” English poetry as well as in German, they are prominent in comic poetry. Examples are The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll or TS Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939).

The most well-known example of an Anapaestic meter is the verse of Limerick , popularized by the Limericks in Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense (1846). An example from this collection is:

There was a Young Lady of Clare,
Who was sadly pursued by a bear;
When she found she was tired,
She abruptly expired,
That unfortunate Lady of Clare.

In Limerick, too, frequent acephaly and catalexes make the meter ambivalent anapaestic-amphibrachy. A corresponding German example is:

Helmut Kreuzer , professor in Siegen
knows how to measure and weigh.
Also Limerick's building,
he knows it well
And counts his feet like flies.

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Anapäst  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ivo Braak: Poetics in Key Words. 8th edition Stuttgart 2001, p. 82.
  2. ↑ Friedrich Schiller: The diver . In: Muses Almanac for the year 1798. p. 121.
  3. ^ August Wilhelm von Schlegel: Selected works. Berlin 1922, 4th act, 1st appearance, p. 128, online .
  4. ^ Robert Eduard Prutz: The political nursery. Verlag des literar Comptoirs, Zurich and Winterthur 1845. Printed in: Der deutsche Michel, Revolutionary Comedies of the Forty-Eight. Stuttgart 1971, online .
  5. ↑ Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk (text)
  6. ^ Edward Lear: A Book of Nonsense. 1846, no.112 .
  7. ^ Christian Wagenknecht: German metric. A historical introduction. Beck, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-406-07947-4 , p. 76.