Correlative verse is a literary device used in poetry around the world; it is characterized by the matching of items in two different pluralities. An example is found in an epigram from the Greek Anthology: "You boldness, youth, strength, wealth, country / to the shy, the old, the weak, the poor, the foreigner (second plurality]". Another example is found in a couplet by 16th-century poet George Peele: "Beauty, strength, youth, are flowers but fading seen; / Duty, faith, love, are roots, and ever green".
Characteristically notorious for correlative verse is Old Norse poetry, which proffers such cryptic examples as Þórðr Særeksson's:
|
Varð sjálf sonar |
Became herself of her son— |
where the elemental pattern is ABCDABCD, i.e. "Varð sjálf sonar...Goðrún bani" (Became herself of her son Guðrún the slayer), etc.
See also
References
- Mignani, Rigo (1965). "Correlative verse". In Alex Preminger (ed.). Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Frank J. Warnke, O. B. Hardison, Jr. Princeton UP. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-691-01308-4.
- Cuddon, J. A.; Preston, C. E. (1999). "Correlative verse". The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (4 ed.). London: Penguin. pp. 181–82. ISBN 9780140513639.
- Faulkes, Anthony (1997). Poetical Inspiration in Old Norse and Old English Poetry. London. p. 29.
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Further reading
- Fucilla, Joseph G. (1956). "A Rhetorical Pattern in Renaissance and Baroque Poetry". Studies in the Renaissance. 3: 23–48. doi:10.2307/2857099. JSTOR 2857099.
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