An acephalous or headless line is a variety of catalectic line in a poem which does not conform to its accepted metre, due to the first syllable's omission. [1] Acephalous lines are usually deliberate variations in scansion, but this is not always obvious.
It is a technique employed often in the concluding lines of hymn texts, and has been employed in poetry to change tone or announce a conclusion, including its use in A. E. Housman's " To An Athlete Dying Young." [ original research?] Robert Wallace argues in his essay " Meter in English" that the term acephalous line seems "pejorative", as if criticising the poet's violation of scansion, but this view is not widely held among critics. [2]
Acephalous lines are common in anapestic metre, especially in limericks.
- There was an old man of Tobago,
- Who lived on rice, gruel, and sago,
- Till, much to his bliss,
- His physician said this -
- "To a leg, sir, of mutton you may go."
- (Anonymous)
The third line is scanned x ' x x ' instead of x x ' x x '.
References
- ^ Cuddon, John Anthony (1998). A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Wiley. p. 6. ISBN 9780631202714.
- ^ "A Review of Meter in English: A Critical Engagement, edited by David Baker". Archived from the original on 2005-09-06. Retrieved 2005-08-14.
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