Latin has a number of virtual homonyms, distinguished only by their quantity, such as lěvis ('light') and lēvis ('smooth').

Ideally we would all know, say, that the first syllable of miles was long and the second one short, but in practice we are often uncertain, or even wrong, and it sometimes necessary to consult a dictionary solely to ascertain the quantities of a word.Īn additional problem is that it is often necessary to know the meaning of a Latin word before one can know its prosody. All diphthongs are normally long by nature, but individual vowels can be either long or short, though a vowel followed by another vowel not in a diphthong is normally short. Whereas English meters are based on a word's accent ('Múch have I trávelled in the reálms of góld”), Latin meters are based on quantity what matters most is whether syllables are long or short.įor most of us the obstacle to reading Latin verse aloud is that we have not learned the quantities of Latin very well. Raven, Latin Metre: an Introduction (Cambridge, 1965). Since the Amores may well be among the first Latin poems a student encounters, it may be helpful to provide a brief introduction to the rules of Latin prosody (the quantity of individual syllables) and to the reading aloud of elegiac couplets. Prosody | Eli sion | The Elegiac Couplet | Reading Aloud

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