The Latin rhythmic hexameter or accentual hexameter is a kind of Latin dactylic hexameter which arose in the Middle Ages alongside the metrical kind. The rhythmic hexameter did not scan correctly according to the rules of classical prosody; instead it imitated the approximate sound of a typical metrical hexameter by having roughly the same number of syllables and putting word accents in approximately the same places in the line.
The rhythmic hexameter flourished between the 3rd and 9th century A.D. The earliest examples come from what is now Tunisia in north Africa. One poet to use it for literary compositions was Commodian, who is thought to have lived in North Africa in the 3rd century AD. Other examples come from Portugal, Spain, Lombardy in northern Italy, and southern France. Several examples are found on tombstones, but there is also an anonymous Christian work of the 6th or 7th century called , and a book of riddles of the 8th century.
Over the centuries the style of the rhythmic hexameter underwent various changes; for example, in some early versions it had six stresses in each line, whereas later it had five. It has been suggested by one scholar that in its later form, with its five stresses with a caesura between the second and third, it eventually developed in France into the early form of iambic pentameter.
Metre versus rhythm
One of the first scholars to make the distinction between rhythmic and metrical poetry was the English monk Bede in his book On Metre. Basing his definition of rhythm on an earlier one by Marius Victorinus, he defines rhythm as "the composition of words modulated not by metrical quantity but by the number of syllables according to the judgement of the ears".
It seems that not all rhythmic poems were made with equal skill. Bede observes that common people make rhythmic poems "in a rustic way" (), but learned people "in a learned way" (). He cites as a good example of a rhythmic poem imitating the iambic metre the hymn , and of the trochaic the hymn .
With iambic and trochaic metres, the word accents in the rhythmic style tend to follow the ictus of the metre. However, with a dactylic hexameter, except in the last two feet, where metre and accent coincide, this is not the case, and the accent does not usually coincide with the beginning of a foot. A rhythmic hexameter, therefore, generally has the last two accents fixed, but the earlier ones variable, the first accent occurring sometimes on the 1st, sometimes on the 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th syllable.
Accent in the metrical hexameter
A typical metrical hexameter is made up of six feet, each of which can be either a dactyl (– u u) or a spondee (– –), the last two feet almost always being dactyl + spondee (– u u | – x) (the final syllable can be long or short). Thus the general scheme or pattern is:
– u u | – u u | – u u | – u u | – u u | – x
There is a usually a break, called a caesura, in the middle of the 3rd foot. Thus a typical line might be:
– u u | – –|– –|– –| – u u| – –
at pater Aeneas, / audito nomine Turni
Sometimes, instead of a third-foot caesura, there is a break in the 2nd and 4th foot, but this is much less common:
– u u|– u u | – –|– – |– u u |– –
inde toro / pater Aeneas / sic orsus ab alto
From an accentual point of view, usually there are two stresses in the first part of the line, and three in the second. In some lines, however, there are three stresses in the first half:
– u u|– u u|– –|– –| – u u |– –
árma virúmque cáno, / Tróiae qui prímus ab óris
– – |– u u| – u u|– u u|– u u|– –
spárgens úmida mélla / sopóriferúmque papáver
The number of syllables in each half varies. In the first half it is from 5 to 8; in the second half from 8 to 10. In the last two feet, it seems that poets sought in most lines to make the word accent coincide with the verse rhythm, and so usually the last word in the line has either two or three syllables, which ensures this coincidence. Only very rarely does a verse end in a monosyllable, and it is usually for special effect.
A poet writing a rhythmic hexameter, therefore, would follow the same rules. For example, in Commodian's poetry, the second half of each line has 8 to 10 syllables, and as in Virgil, the last word has either two or three syllables. The first half of the line usually has six syllables, but occasionally 5 or 7.