Distichon (Distich)

Abstract

The verse form Distichon (distich), a classical couplet comprising one hexameter and one pentameter line, can qualify as a Begriff (concept) in Clark Muenzer’s sense of an “experimental technology” that facilitates the intelligibility of a world in flux. Goethe experimented with this ancient form throughout the decade following his return from his first journey to Italy and developed it into a fine-tuned vehicle for his emerging natural scientific and cultural conceptions. While he drew from both the elegiac and epigrammatic distichal traditions, the epigram, in particular, shaped his conceptualization of the distich as a primal poetic unit mediating the poet’s encounter with the world. The flexible segmented structure of the distich, as defined by its two lines and caesuras, nicely accommodates parallel, contrastive, reciprocal, circular, and triadic configurations that play a role in his morphological thought and aesthetic-cultural program.