Alcaic stanza¶
alcaic_stanza · form · validated
A four-line quantitative stanza of two hendecasyllables, an enneasyllable and a decasyllable.
Provenance¶
- Source: Traditional; the stanza of Alcaeus, 6th century BC
- Attribution:
traditional— classical or folk; no single origin to name - Checkability:
self— decidable from the text and its parameters alone - Attested:
codified— formulated as a rule by a tradition rather than declared by an author
Details¶
- Kind: restrictive
- Languages: en
- Requires:
tokens,stress,syllables.heuristic - Deterministic: yes
- In other languages: Alkäische Strophe (de), Strophe alcaïque (fr)
Notes¶
Checked as English accentual verse: classical quantity is vowel length, which English does not have, so stress stands in for it, as for dactylic hexameter.
Prompt hint¶
Write two eleven-syllable lines, then one of nine and one of ten.
Examples¶
constructed-satisfying-stanza¶
en — this text satisfies the procedure.
song forest daylight murmuring garden light
stone morning birthright beautiful silver sea
song forest morning silver moonlight
murmuring beautiful forest garden
Source: constructed example; no literary English translation of Alcaeus was found to scan exactly against this fixed accentual pattern, so this case tiles the hendecasyllable, enneasyllable and decasyllable from words of known stress.
prose-of-similar-length¶
en — this text does not satisfy the procedure.
the cat sat on the small mat by the door
a dog ran through the park and down the street
a bird flew high above the old house
the wind blew softly through the trees
Source: constructed counterexample
empty-text-is-not-vacuous¶
en — this text does not satisfy the procedure.
Source: constructed counterexample
unknown-word-mid-line¶
en — this text satisfies the procedure.
blorf forest daylight murmuring garden light
stone morning birthright beautiful silver sea
song forest morning silver moonlight
murmuring beautiful forest garden
Source: constructed example; an invented word reaches the stress fallback
gefuegte-strophe¶
de — this text satisfies the procedure.
Oktober Stein Stein Liebe Oktober Stein
Nacht Nacht Nacht Nacht Nacht Nacht Nacht Nacht Nacht Nacht Nacht
Dezember Feuer Feuer Nacht Nacht
Garten Zitrone Zitrone Garten
Source: constructed example; tiles German words of known stress across the fixed pattern