There are poems in which all the verses have the same rhyme as in the "Kasida" of the Arabs in others, and these are the more numerous, the verses of each strophe have a single rhyme which is not the same for all the strophes. But the Syrians made varied use of rhyme.
Ephraem signed some of his poems with his acrostic.įrom the ninth century the influence of Arabic poetry made itself felt in Syriac hymnody, especially by the introduction of rhyme, this manner of marking the final stroke of a verse had been hitherto unknown, the rare examples held to have been discovered among older authors being merely voluntary or fortuitous assonances. The name of Jesus Christ, of Mary, or the saint in whose honour the hymn is composed serves to form linear or strophic acrostics. There may be two or more successive strophes beginning with the same letter, each letter regularly marking the same number of strophes throughout the poem which thus consists of forty-four strophes, of sixty-six, or of any other multiple of twenty-two. introduced in imitation of the Psalms and the Lamentations of Jeremias. This letter may be only at the beginning of the first verse or it may be repeated at the beginning of each verse of the strophe. Sometimes the acrostic is linear, simple when each verse begins successively with one of the twenty-two letters of the Syriac alphabet, multiple, when two, three, or more verses begin with the same letter without, forming strophes sometimes it is strophic, when each strophe is marked by a letter of the alphabet. The acrostic played an important part, in Syriac hymnody and its use, especially the alphabetic acrostic, seems to have been introduced in imitation of the Psalms and the Lamentations of Jeremias. All the strophes of a hymn are usually of the same construction.īesides variety of metre and division into strophes the Syrians prior to the ninth century knew no other artifice than the arrangement of acrostic poems. A strophe is generally composed of equal verses, but it sometimes happens that the first of the last verse is in a different measure from the other verses of the strophe. These verses may be employed alone or grouped in strophes, the latter form being most frequent in hymns composed of verses of five and seven syllables. Verses of all lengths from two to twelve are known, but the metres most used in hymnody are verses of twelve syllables formed of three equal measures (4+4+4), verses of seven syllables formed of two measures (4+3 or 3+4), and verses of five syllables also formed of two measures (2+3 or 3+2). The chief basis of Syriac metre is fixed number of syllables of the verses, without distinction of long and short syllables, as in several modern languages. To the general consideration set forth in the article HYMNODY AND HYMNOLOGY must be added some bearing particularly on the structure and liturgical use of hymns ( madrashe), exclusive of poetical homilies or discourses ( mimre), which belong to the narrative and epic class, while the hymns are lyrical. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more all for only $19.99.
#VERSES FORMS TEN VERSES FOUR VERSES STROPHES FULL#
Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download.
0 kommentar(er)
