Experimental Phonetics and Ancient Greek Verse

Abstract

ANALYSIS of a macrophonic registration1 of ” Devon to Me !” spoken, by John Galsworthy2 showed that 15 of the 40 lines of the poem had a rhythmic form indicated by ; an example is the line ” Where my fathers stood”. This is the form known in ancient Greek metrics as the hypodochmius (for example, ” Oed. rex”, 1208). Twenty lines had the form ; an example is ” Watching the sea”. This is the choriambus, a very common ancient form. Five lines had the form as in ” Taste of the cream pan !” This is the form termed adoneus. Every line of the poem was spoken with some form of ancient Greek rhythm. The registration of the first stanza of ” Drake's Spirit” by Galsworthy himself showed that the line ” I, Francis Drake” had the rhythm of the third epitrite as in ” Medea”, 628, and that the line ” When the land needs” had the rhythm of the rising ionic as in ” Phoen.”, 1539.