In a glacial epoch or in the arsis of an historic pulsation, storms are usually abundant and severe, the mean temperature is lower than usual, snow accumulates in high latitudes or upon lofty mountains.
The most important feature of both sequences is the swing from a glacial to an inter-glacial epoch or from the arsis or accentuated part of an historical pulsation to the thesis or unaccented part.
If the arsis is monosyllabic, a short vowel in the thesis followed by a single consonant is not lengthened by the ictus; the arsis is instead prolonged.
With arsis monosyllabic, the strong tendency is to make the thesis short.
They exhibited a more or less regular alternation of arsis and thesis.
Resolution of such verse members is rare, which shows that they are more closely related to the thesis than to the arsis of the hemistich.
In Beowulf this separation of closely connected words is permitted only if the word standing in the arsis alliterates at the same time.
This fact, that secondarily accented syllables are debarred from alliterating, is another proof that it is better to look on them as belonging to the thesis rather than to the arsis of the verse.
As the root-syllables of words (leaving out of account the words of Romanic origin) almost universally retain their full syllabic value, whether occurring inarsis or in thesis, they require no notice in this chapter.
A verse in which both the lastarsis and the next to the last are suppressed, so that a whole foot appears to be wanting, is called brachycatalectic.
Such an initial arsis was named by Gottfried Hermann Anacrūsis (Gr.
An arsis is frequently suppressed, especially the penultimate arsis.
The Greek and Roman metricians divided the rhythms into three classes, according to the ratio betweenarsis and thesis in their fundamental feet.
Compensation is made for the suppression of anarsis by protracting (2516) the preceding thesis.
Frequently an arsis is suppressed, and compensation for the omission is made by dwelling longer upon the thesis.
There is generally a trithemimeral caesura; more rarely one in the arsis of the second foot.
If there is not such a diaeresis, there is generally a caesura after the arsis of the fifth foot.
Each thesis may be either a long syllable or two shorts; each arsis may be a short syllable, a long, or two shorts, but an arsis is not resolved before the principal break or at the end of the verse.
Abrupt outcry, in which the less and the more forcible exclamatory pauses are metrically provided for by the lacking thesis and arsis respectively.
The thesis of the third foot allows for the recoil of horror; the arsis for the transition to revenge--the drawing of the rapier.
The suppression of the light syllable accentuates the arsis 'Why.
Sometimes the arsis is lacking, and is supplied by a pause or gesture:-- xiii.
The missing arsis is supplied by the pause that succeeds a command.
The onus probandi lies with the author who presumes an arsis (accent in the English sense) on a non-radical syllable.
In accordance with the views just exhibited, the author conceives that no Greek word has an arsis upon the last syllable, except in the three following cases:-- 1.
It was the character of the Greek language to admit an arsis on the last syllable of a word only under circumstances comparatively rare.
Respecting these two sorts of cæsura, the rules, instead of being exhibited in detail, may be replaced by the simple assertion that there should be an arsis on the sixth syllable.
The proof of the coincidence between the arsis and the quantity in the third foot is derived partly from à posteriori, partly from à priori evidence.
When, however, it does occur, one of the three conditions under which a final syllable can take anarsis must accompany it.
In this part of the senarius it is no longer a matter of indifference whether the foot be sounded as Aúgust or as augúst; that is, it is no longer a matter of indifference whether the arsis and the quantity coincide.
When however it does occur, one of the three conditions under which a final syllable can take an arsis must accompany it.
The proof of the coincidence between the arsis and the quantity in the third foot is derived partly from a posteriori, partly from a priori evidence.
Respecting these two sorts of caesura, the rules, instead of being exhibited in detail, may be replaced by the simple assertion that there should be an arsis on the sixth syllable.
