Sapphic Defined

The following is the metrical pattern of the Sapphic stanza. The pattern

is written as four lines, although the fourth line originally may have

been thought of as just a lengthening of the third line:

— U — U — // UU — U — X

— U — U — // U U — U — X

— U — U — // U U — U — X

           — U U — X

The diaeresis does not always occur in this spot.

Poem 51, line 1

Ille mī pār esse deō vidētur,

—U—  —   — U   U—  U— X

ille, sī fās est, superāre dīvōs,

—U — —   —    U U —U   — X

quī sedens adversus identidem tē

—   U —      — —   U   U—  U—    X

spectat et audit

—    U    U  — X

Catullus Poems in Sapphic

11   51

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