Anne Mahoney, Overview of Latin Syntax

Sentence Construction

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III. Poetic word order

Normal word order in a poem is the same as in prose.

• Quis ullos homines beatiores vidit? Catullus 45.25-26
• Arma virumque cano. Virgil, Aen. 1.1

Words may be displaced to fit the meter.

• Varus me meus ad suos amores
  visum duxerat e foro otiosum.
  

  Catullus 10.1-2

  The expected prose order might be Varus meus me otiosum visum e foro ad suos amores duxerat.
• ... Troiae qui primus ab oris Italiam fato profugus Laviniaque venit litora Virgil, Aen. 1.1-3 The more normal order would be qui primus ab Troiae oris fato profugus Italiam Laviniaque litora venit, and prose might have in or ad Italiam et Lavinia litora.

Often the last word before the principal caesura of a dactylic hexameter, or the first word after that caesura, belongs with the last word of the line. Similarly, the last word of the first half of the "pentameter" of an elegiac couplet often belongs with the last word of the line.

• Tum Thetis humanos non despexit hymenaeos Catullus 64.20
• Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem Virgil, Aen. 1.33
• Tantane vos generis tenuit fiducia vestri? Virgil, Aen. 1.132

• Dicit: sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti
  in vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.
  

  Catullus 70.3-4

Poets like to construct golden lines. A golden line is a dactylic hexameter made up of two nouns, each modified by an adjective, symmetrically arranged around a verb.

• irrita ventosae linquens promissa procellae Catullus 64.59
• aurave distinctos educit verna colores Catullus 64.90
• Extemplo Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra. Virgil, Aen. 1.192 ; here the genitive Aeneae modifies membra instead of an adjective. This is the first use of Aeneas's name in the poem, and the ornamental line calls attention to it.

Poets may arrange words to emphasize puns and word play, or for sound effects.

• Gratias tibi maximas Catullus
  agit pessimus omnium poeta,
  tanto pessimus omnium poeta
  quanto tu optimus omnium patronus.
  

  Catullus 49.4-8

  Here the identical metrical position emphasizes the repetition and the variation in the last line.
• monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum. Virgil, Aen. 3.658 The elisions and the four contracted bicipitia emphasize the ungainliness of Polyphemus.
• ...spargens umida mella soporiferumque papaver. Virgil, Aen. 4.486 This line is soporific because all the stressed syllables come in princeps positions.

This text is based on the following book(s):
Overview of Latin Syntax. Anne Mahoney. 2000. Text created electronically.