There are two asclepiad lines, the
lesser and the
greater, and they are of the 4 most important
lyric one line
metres of Classic
lyric poetry (The others being the
hendecasyllabic metre, the
Glyconic metre and the
Pherecratic metre). While the
dactylic poetry (
epic,
boucolic etc.) and the
iambic and
trochaic poetry (
dramatic etc.) use feet arranged by certain orders and quantities, the lyric metres pertain to complete lines. A stanza doesn't need to be constituted of a single metric element (except for the
Alcaic and the
Sapphic Stanzas), but could interchange them and even occasionally add "feet-metre" lines and couplets (particularly the '
Elegiac Couplet'). The normal
lyric stanza has four lines.
The lesser asclepiad, which is by far the commoner, has twelve syllables with the caesura after the 6th one.
The pattern is as follows:
- - - ^ ^ - : - ^ ^ - ^ -
* - long or stressed syllable; ^ short or unstressed syllable; : caesura; // diaeresis.
Example (in Latin):
- - - ^ ^ -: - ^ ^ - ^ -
Maecenas, atavis edite regibus
(Horatius, Od. I, 1, 1)
The greater asclepiad is created by adding a choriambus (-^^-) after the 6th syllable,
with a diaeresis both before and after it.
Example:
- - - ^ ^ -//- ^ ^-// - ^ ^ - ^ -
nullum, Vare, sacra vite prius severis arborem
(Horatius, Od. I, 18, 1)