Latin C2: Verse: the dactylic hexameter · Grammar

Latin poetry is built on long and short syllables, not on stress. A syllable is long if its vowel is long or if two consonants follow it. The epic line, the dactylic hexameter, has six feet: dactyls (long, short, short) or spondees (long, long), always ending — ∪ ∪ | — —. A vowel at the end of a word is swallowed before one at the start of the next (elision). Poets also bend word order freely, so read for the endings.

• arma — arms, weapons
• cano — I sing (of)
• carmen — song, poem
• versus — line of verse
• Musa — Muse
• fatum — fate
• pius — dutiful, devoted
• astra — stars

• Arma virumque cano. — I sing of arms and the man.
• Omnia vincit Amor. — Love conquers all.
• Sunt lacrimae rerum. — There are tears in things.
• Fugit irreparabile tempus. — Time flies, never to return.