biceps (prosody)

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Biceps is a point in a metrical pattern where a pair of short syllables can freely be replaced by a long one. In Greek and Latin poetry, it is found in the dactylic hexameter and the first half of a dactylic pentameter, and also in anapaestic metres.

It is not to be confused with resolution, which is a phenomenon where a normally long syllable in a line is sometimes replaced by two shorts. Resolution is typically found in an iambic metre such as the iambic trimeter or a trochaic metre such as the trochaic septenarius.

References

  • {{cite book|author1=Roland Greene|author2=Stephen Cushman|author3=Clare Cavanagh |author4=Jahan Ramazani |author5=Paul F. Rouzer |author6=Harris Feinsod |author7=David Marno |author8=Alexandra Slessarev|title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MJVlZjIe5o8C&pg=PA260|year=2012|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-15491-6|pages=260}}

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Category:Poetic rhythm

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