Retrograde verse
Retrograde verse is "poetry that is metrically and syntactically viable when read both forwards and backwards, word by word".[1]
It is a difficult verse form. There are examples of retrograde verse in Latin from the classical, late antique and medieval periods.[2] Medieval examples include:
- Centum concito by Oswald the Younger[2]
- Terrigene bene nunc laudent by Oswald the Younger[2]
- Book VI of the Quirinalia of Metellus of Tegernsee[3]
- Tu tibi displiceas[2]
- Me merito censo minimam[2]
- Patribus hec omnibus by John of Garland[2]
- Lebuine confessorum, a 15th-century sequence from the Lebuïnuskerk, Deventer[2]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Leslie Lockett (2016), "Oswald's versus retrogradi: A Forerunner of Post-Conquest Trends in Hexameter Composition", in Rebecca Stephenson and Emily V. Thornbury (eds.), Latinity and Identity in Anglo-Saxon Literature (University of Toronto Press), p. 158.
- ^ a b c d e f g Leslie Lockett (2003), "The Composition and Transmission of a Fifteenth-Century Latin Retrograde Sequence Text from Deventer", Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis 53(1), p. 118 and n. 67. JSTOR 25047127
- ^ Daniela Mairhofer, "Germany and Austria", in Francesco Stella, Lucie Doležalová and Danuta Shanzer (eds.), Latin Literatures of Medieval and Early Modern Times in Europe and Beyond: A Millennium Heritage (John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2024), pp. 82–83.
Further reading
[edit]- Flores, Enrico; Polara, Giovanni (1969). "Specimina di analisi applicate a strutture di Versspielerei latina". Rendiconti dell'Accademia di archeologia, lettere, e belle arti di Napoli. 45: 111–136.