Political Verse

Political verse (Greek: Politikós stíkhos, Πολιτικός στίχος), also known as Decapentasyllabic verse (from Greek dekapentasyllabos, δεκαπεντασύλλαβος, lit. '15-syllable'), is a common metric form in Medieval and Modern Greek poetry. It is an iambic verse of fifteen syllables and has been the main meter of traditional popular and folk poetry since the Byzantine period. The name is unrelated to the concept of "politics" and does not imply political content of a poem; rather, it derives from the original meaning of the Greek word πολιτικός, 'civil' or 'civic', meaning that it was originally a form used for secular, non-religious, even profane poetry. It is also called “ἡμαξευμένοι στίχοι” ("like-a-chariot-on-a-paved-road" verses, because the words “flow” freely like a running chariot).

Read more about Political Verse:  History, Form, Example, Technique and Structure, Grammar and Language, Ethos: Mood and Feeling, Use, Analogies in English Poetry, Importance, See Also, References

Famous quotes containing the words political and/or verse:

    [When asked: “Will not woman suffrage make the black woman the political equal of the white woman and does not political equality mean social equality?”:] If it does then men by keeping both white and black women disfranchised have already established social equality!
    Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)

    Some poems are for holidays only. They are polished and sweet, but it is the sweetness of sugar, and not such as toil gives to sour bread. The breath with which the poet utters his verse must be that by which he lives.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)