85. In c. 63 the GALLIAMBIC verse is used. It is said to have originated as a lesser Ionic tetrameter catalectic, having, therefore, the following scheme: - uu-- uu-- uu-- uu- But as used by Catullus anaclasis always occurs (except in vv. 54 and 60?), and the resultant trochees are often, the last almost always, resolved. The scheme may therefore be written as follows (the regularly occurring caesura being indicated by a comma) - uu-u-u-- , uu-uWu- This scheme is not, to be sure, true to the theory of the Ionic series, but the result of anaclasis (i.e. the substitution of dichorees for Ionics) seems to have been that the metre was treated as trochaic, and the anacrusis, therefore, became of necessity irrational. On no other theory is rhythmical recitation of the Galliambics of Catullus possible.1 The individual schemes of several verses of c. 63 are here given as specimens of the application of the general scheme: Line 1: uu-u-u-- uu-uwu- Line 5: W-u-u-- uu-uwu- Line 14: uu-u-u-- uu-u-u-
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1 This paragraph is thoroughly out of date. In fact, "anaclastic ionics," also called anacreontics, are quite common, and have nothing to do with trochees. While galliambics are unusual, they are not at all difficult.
Catullus. Catullus. E. T. Merrill. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1893.
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