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{{Metrical feet}}
{{Metrical feet}}
A '''Molossus''' is a [[metrical foot]] used in formal [[poetry]]. It consists of three [[long syllable]]s. In English poetry, syllables are usually categorized as being either stressed or unstressed, rather than long or short.
A '''molossus''' ({{IPAc-en|m|ə|ˈ|l|ɒ|s|ə|s}}) is a [[metrical foot]] used in Greek and Latin [[poetry]]. It consists of three [[long syllable]]s.<ref name="WoodRobinson1943">{{cite book|author1=Clement Wood|author2=Ted Robinson|title=Unabridged Rhyming Dictionary|url=https://archive.org/details/woodsunabridgedr00wood|url-access=registration|year=1943|publisher=World Publishing Company}}</ref> Examples of Latin words constituting molossi are ''audiri, cantabant, virtutem''.


In English poetry, syllables are usually categorized as being either stressed or unstressed, rather than long or short, and the unambiguous molossus rarely appears, as it is too easily interpreted as two feet (and thus a metrical fault) or as having at least one destressed syllable.
For example, the first line of the following verse is a molossus:
⚫
:''Break, break, break,
:''On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
:''And I would that my tongue could utter
:''The thoughts that arise in me.
::'''Break, break, break'', [[Alfred Lord Tennyson]], (in memory of [[Arthur Hallam]])


Perhaps the best example of a molossus is the repeated refrain of ''no birds sing'' in the first and last verse of [[John Keats]]'s poem "[[La Belle Dame sans Merci|La Belle Dame Sans Merci]]" (1819) especially for the way it forces the reader to slow down, which is the poetic essence of this metrical foot.
Like the [[spondee]], the molossus is rare in English poetry, but can usually be created by using an adjective-adjective-noun combination, as in [[W.S. Gilbert]]'s "To Sit in Solemn Silence."


{{poemquote|Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
''To sit in solemn silence in a '''dull dark dock''',
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake
And no birds sing.}}


The title of [[Lord Tennyson]]'s poem "[[Break, Break, Break]]" (1842) is sometimes cited as a molossus, but in context it can only be three separate feet:
''In a pestilential prison, with a '''life-long lock''''',


⚫
{{poemquote|Break, / break, / break,
''Awaiting the sensation of a '''short, sharp shock''''',
At the foot / of thy crags, / O sea;
But the ten- / -der grace / of the day / that is dead
Will never / come back / to me.}}


[[Clement Wood]] proposes as a more convincing instance: ''great white chief'',<ref name="WoodRobinson1943"/> of which an example occurs in "Ballads of a Cheechako" (1907) by [[Robert W. Service]]:
''From a cheap and chippy chopper on a '''big black block'''!''''


{{poemquote|For thus the / Great White Chief / hath said, / "In all / my lands / be peace".<ref name="Service1910">{{cite book|author=Robert William Service|title=Ballads of a Cheechako, by Robert W. Service|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=guKwmgEACAAJ|year=1910}}</ref>}}
The dramatic effect of a molossus is central to the short story "Cousin Teresa" by [[Saki]]:


However, given that the previous lines<ref>{{Wikisource-inline|Clancy of the Mounted Police}}</ref> in the stanza are constructed predominantly in [[Fourteener (poetry)|iambic heptameter]] – a common form for ballad stanza – it is more likely that the meter appears as:
:“The inspiration came to me whilst I was dressing,” announced Lucas; “it will be ''the'' thing in the next music-hall ''revue''. All London will go mad over it. It’s just a couplet; of course there will be other words, but they won’t matter. Listen:


{{poemquote|For '''thus''' / the '''Great''' / '''White Chief''' / hath '''said,''' / "In '''all''' / my '''lands''' / be '''peace'''".}}
::: Cousin Teresa takes out Cæsar,
::: '''Fido, Jock''', and the '''big borzoi'''.


The double stress on "White Chief" comes from the substitution of a spondee in place of the iamb, mirroring previous substitutions in the poem, rather than a molossus.
:A lifting, catchy sort of refrain, you see, and big-drum business on the two syllables of bor-zoi. It’s immense.” <ref name="Beasts and Superbeasts">[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/269/269-h/269-h.htm Beasts and Superbeasts], London 1914</ref>


In one literary dictionary, a dubious candidate is given from [[Gerard Manley Hopkins]]:<ref>''A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory.'' By John Anthony Cuddon, Claire Preston. Wiley-Blackwell, 1998.</ref>
The story satirizes how the public attention is more easily held by the rhythm of a pop song than by political affairs.


{{poemquote|As a dare-gale / skylark / scanted in a / dull cage
⚫
{{Reflist}}
Man's mounting / spirit in his / bone-house, / '''mean house, dwells'''}}


If both lines are scanned as four feet, without extra stress on ''dwells'', then the words in boldface become a molossus. Another example that has been given<ref>''The Psychology of Art.'' By Robert Morris Ogden. C. Scribner's Sons, 1938. Page 107.</ref> is ''wild-goose-chase'', but this requires that there be no stress on ''chase'', seeing that in Thomas Clarke's "Erotophuseos" (1840), we have:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Molossus (Poetry)}}
⚫
[[Category:Metrical feet]]


{{poemquote|And led / me im- / -percept- / -ibly,
A wild- / goose chase, / far far / away,}}


where clearly there is no molossus.
⚫
{{Poetry-stub}}


== See also ==
[[de:Molossos]]
* ''[[En rythme molossique]]'', an [[étude]] for piano by [[Charles-Valentin Alkan]] that uses the rhythm of the molossus as a theme

== References ==
⚫
{{Reflist}}

⚫
{{Poetry-stub}}
⚫
[[Category:Metrical feet]]

Latest revision as of 15:47, 10 October 2024

Metrical feet and accents
Disyllables
◡ ◡pyrrhic, dibrach
◡ –iamb
– ◡trochee, choree
– –spondee
Trisyllables
◡ ◡ ◡tribrach
– ◡ ◡dactyl
◡ – ◡amphibrach
◡ ◡ –anapaest, antidactylus
◡ – –bacchius
– ◡ –cretic, amphimacer
– – ◡antibacchius
– – –molossus
See main article for tetrasyllables.

A molossus (/məˈlɒsəs/) is a metrical foot used in Greek and Latin poetry. It consists of three long syllables.[1] Examples of Latin words constituting molossi are audiri, cantabant, virtutem.

In English poetry, syllables are usually categorized as being either stressed or unstressed, rather than long or short, and the unambiguous molossus rarely appears, as it is too easily interpreted as two feet (and thus a metrical fault) or as having at least one destressed syllable.

Perhaps the best example of a molossus is the repeated refrain of no birds sing in the first and last verse of John Keats's poem "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" (1819) especially for the way it forces the reader to slow down, which is the poetic essence of this metrical foot.

Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake
And no birds sing.

The title of Lord Tennyson's poem "Break, Break, Break" (1842) is sometimes cited as a molossus, but in context it can only be three separate feet:

Break, / break, / break,
At the foot / of thy crags, / O sea;
But the ten- / -der grace / of the day / that is dead
Will never / come back / to me.

Clement Wood proposes as a more convincing instance: great white chief,[1] of which an example occurs in "Ballads of a Cheechako" (1907) by Robert W. Service:

For thus the / Great White Chief / hath said, / "In all / my lands / be peace".[2]

However, given that the previous lines[3] in the stanza are constructed predominantly in iambic heptameter – a common form for ballad stanza – it is more likely that the meter appears as:

For thus / the Great / White Chief / hath said, / "In all / my lands / be peace".

The double stress on "White Chief" comes from the substitution of a spondee in place of the iamb, mirroring previous substitutions in the poem, rather than a molossus.

In one literary dictionary, a dubious candidate is given from Gerard Manley Hopkins:[4]

As a dare-gale / skylark / scanted in a / dull cage
Man's mounting / spirit in his / bone-house, / mean house, dwells

If both lines are scanned as four feet, without extra stress on dwells, then the words in boldface become a molossus. Another example that has been given[5] is wild-goose-chase, but this requires that there be no stress on chase, seeing that in Thomas Clarke's "Erotophuseos" (1840), we have:

And led / me im- / -percept- / -ibly,
A wild- / goose chase, / far far / away,

where clearly there is no molossus.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Clement Wood; Ted Robinson (1943). Unabridged Rhyming Dictionary. World Publishing Company.
  2. ^ Robert William Service (1910). Ballads of a Cheechako, by Robert W. Service.
  3. ^ Works related to Clancy of the Mounted Police at Wikisource
  4. ^ A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory. By John Anthony Cuddon, Claire Preston. Wiley-Blackwell, 1998.
  5. ^ The Psychology of Art. By Robert Morris Ogden. C. Scribner's Sons, 1938. Page 107.
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