[Allen Tice]

I think, AS AN AMATEUR, that moderns are too mechanical in interpreting the classic meters, and indeed, too mechanical in applying the "four" levels in English stress. In ordinary English speech, there are three stress levels, plus a super light "level" that hardly exists as stress; and in classic Latin there were two lengths plus elision: which gives three also.

Also, as an indolent amateur, well insulated from insolvent University programs, I suspect, though I may not tell, that too little attention is paid to what different Greeks and Romans did with their line ends, and the lengths associated thereto.

Bless all insolent reviewers,

Allen