ALCAICS, in Ancient Poetry, a denomination given to several kinds of verse, from Alceus, their inventor.
The first kind consists of five feet, viz. a spondee or iambic, an iambic, a long syllable, a dactyle, another dactyle. Such is the following verse of Horace:
Omnis | eodem | cogimur, | omnium
Versa | tur ut na | scribit, | ocula,
Sors exitura.
The second kind consists of two dactyles and two trochees; as,
Exilium | impositura | cymbus.
Besides these two, which are called dactylic Alcaics, there is another, simply styled Alcaic, consisting of an
epitrite, a choriambus, another choriambus, and a bacchus. The following is of this species:
Cur timet fasvum Tiberim | tangere, cur | olivum?