Poetic proseAt the outset of the chapter I gave a broad definition of poetry that (for the
purposes of the present inquiry) identified its essence not in the use of metre
but in the adoption of high style, ‘a style which diverges from the ordinary by
using elevated or archaic vocabulary, ornamental epithets, figures of speech, a
contrived word order, or other artificial features’. I flagged the possibility that
Indo-European practice might have recognized the use of such a style for
certain sorts of composition that were not in verse.
Something of the kind is in fact found in several branches of the
tradition.^95 It appears especially in prayers and religious ritual, where correct
and lofty wording was called for. From India Watkins cites the liturgy of the
As ́vamedha, the great horse sacrifice associated with the installation of a king.
Some of the mantras are in regular verse, others are ‘held together more by
grammatical parallelism than by metre’. Avestan examples include the Ga ̄tha ̄
of the Seven Chapters (Y. 35–41), which is divided into lines and strophes or
periods, but is stylized prose, not metrical. Early Latin and Umbrian litanies
show the same characteristics, and so do formulae prescribed for utterance
in Hittite ritual texts. Greek priests intoned non-metrical but formally struc-
tured prayers, as evidenced by the parodies in Aristophanes’Birds (864–88)
andThesmophoriazousai (295–311).
Similar stylistic features could appear in secular use in formal rhetoric or
high-flown narrative. One may refer to the fragments of the earliest Greek
and Roman orators, who were no doubt continuing and developing long-
standing traditions. Their too conspicuous artifice was found unsuited to the
serious art of persuasion and was toned down by their successors, yet it left a
permanent mark on ancient oratory. In Ireland there was a form of writing
calledrosc or roscad, associated with legal and narrative texts. It embraced
both syllabic verse in the older, non-rhyming style and a sort of poetic prose
marked by alliteration, balancing clauses with grammatical parallelism,
strained syntax, perturbed word order, and ‘strophic’ organization.
Verse in a prose settingA different form of marriage between prose and poetry, sometimes given the
dismal and inept name of prosimetrum, consists of text alternating between
prose and verse. The prose provides the narrative or explanatory frame. The
(^95) Watkins (1995), 229–40 (Italic, Avestan), 249–51 (Anatolian), 255–64 (Irish), 267–76
(Indian).
- Poet and Poesy 61