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Unread 03-05-2007, 03:21 PM
Mark Allinson Mark Allinson is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Tomakin, NSW, Australia
Posts: 5,313
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Exactly, Jan - your example flows as naturally as any English prose.

Thanks for joining in, Maryann.

The trick with dac-hex, I think, lies in the variations. Nothing but regular dac-hex gets very boring before long.

Well, I just received a copy of that 116 year old article on "The Dactylic Hexameter in English Prose", and the examples cited by the author should finally explode the myth that the dactylic rhythm is foreign to English.

For a start we are told that "the old dactylic cadence runs through all racy Anglo-Saxon English style." And later, "A marked dactylic rhythm is often present in the language of the Bible". And examples, such as this are given:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

He also points to "a dozen unconscious hexameters" in a short passage from Longfellow's prose.

This myth that only iambics are natural for English is simply wrong, I believe.



[This message has been edited by Mark Allinson (edited March 05, 2007).]
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