Rhythms of Ancient Poetry (3)

The Golden Line

The Golden Line is a term invented by British Latinists in the 17th century and used exclusively to identify a particular symmetrical arrangement of words in the Latin hexameter (for the basic form of which see my earlier post ).

Rhythms of Ancient Poetry

If it were used in speaking of English verse form, a Golden Line might be a line such as this, from Satan’s first speech in Milton’s Paradise Lost:

          Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.

The structure of the words is symmetrical, with the comparative adjective ‘Better’ at the start leading to two balanced phrases. Each phrase consists of a verb (‘to reign’, ‘serve’) followed by an adverbial place phrase (‘in Hell’, ‘in Heav’n’). One might use a diagram to show this symmetry:

                    <Adjective>                                                            Better
  <Verb>                                  <Verb>           to reign \                                      / than  serve
               <Place>      <Place>                                         in Hell /   \ in Heav'n

An example of a Golden Line in Latin is from Virgil’s Aeneid Bk 4:

     A golden clasp fastens her purple cloak
     Aurea purpuream subnectit fibula vestem

Because Latin uses word endings to indicate different functions, word order is more flexible than in English. In this case the Latin word order is as follows, with adjectives shown in square or curly brackets agreeing with nouns in the same kind of brackets:

{Golden]   {purple}     fastens    [clasp]   {cloak}
   aurea   purpuream   subnectit   fibula    vestem

The Golden Line, then, is defined as one that is composed in this form:

<Adjective 1>                                          <Noun 1>
                                    <Verb>
     <Adjective 2>                                 <Noun 2>

The effect in Latin is of an interlinking of words that gives an impression of serene beauty and symmetry. Perhaps the most famous example from classical antiquity is from Virgil’s 2nd Eclogue, where he tells how the Water Nymph ‘sets off (pingit) delicate hyacinths (mollia vaccinia) with golden marigold (luteolā calthā)’. As well as creating a collocation of soft consonants (m, l) and lowing vowels (long o u, i a), the poet gives us a perfect Golden Line:

mollia          luteolā           pingit      vaccinia       calthā
delicate (with) golden  sets off   hyacinth (with) marigold

It’s no coincidence that Virgil uses this interlinking form of words, in both examples given above, when talking about either a literal linking (subnectit) with a clasp or a visually striking interweaving of floral colours. This is word-painting to a purpose.

When Latin verse composition was taught in British schools in the 18th to 20th centuries (as it was to me in the 1970s), the Golden Line was a form that was commended and perhaps overused. But it does have a long and honourable history, as the impressive research by Kurt Mayer indicates. In the end, then, we might compose our own Latin hexameter to say that a Golden Line (aurea linea) stands (consistit) in the most delightful verse (praedulci versu):

               aurea praedulci consistit linea versu