I did some unintended research, the kind in which one interesting thing leads to another, which leads to Chuck D. The sequence was as follows: 1. Found at a thrift shop: Greek Lyric Poetry, translated by Willis Barnstone. (Bantam Books, 1962). 2) I flipped to the Hellenistic era poets in this anthology, since I've incidentally been reading Plutarch's Hellenistic Lives. 3) There I randomly turned to Kallimachos or Callimachus. He was a poet and scholar who critiqued long-form verse, and wrote among other things epyllia, or miniature epics. “The sweet myrtle of Kallimachos said the Stephanos of Meleagros. (Willis Barnstone, translator, doesn’t identify 'the Stephanos of Meleagros' after this comment. Perhaps he’s referring to Stephanus Grammaticus, who was included in a much older anthology, the Greek Anthology.) Anyway, what caught my eye was: 4) this idea of the epyllion, or mini-epic—a tempting project. Though mini, the form still employs epic meter, or 5) dactylic hexameter (A line of 6 dactlys. In English, this sounds like “higgeldy piggeldy,” times 6). Along with Kallimachos and epyllion, I reviewed dactylic hexameter in Wikpedia, and in a rather Wikipedia-esque way, that entry doesn't fail to mention: 6) the classic rap song, "Bring the Noise"—a recent example of lyrics spoken in epic meter. Thus, six steps to Public Enemy’s ‘harsh honey:’ Postscript: Writing Prompt
Write an epyllion, no matter how short, whether using dactylic hexameter lines or not. It could narrate a protest, perhaps, involving honey. Comments are closed.
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Susan ParrCorrespondences, incidentals, hypotheticals, visuals. I also hike. Archives
June 2023
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