| 释义 |
rhopalic, a. Pros.|rəʊˈpælɪk|
Also 7 ro-.
[ad. late L. rhopalicus, Gr. ῥοπαλικός, f. ῥόπαλος a cudgel thicker towards one end.]
Applied to verses in which each word contains one syllable more than the one immediately preceding it. Also as n.
a1682Sir T. Browne Misc. Tracts vii. (1683) 125 Of Ropalic or Gradual Verses... A Poem of this nature is to be found in Ausonius beginning thus, Spes Deus æternæ stationis conciliator. 1794Mrs. Piozzi Brit. Synon. II. 124 The third [row], still increasing like Rhopalic lines, should be filled up with Corneille, Dryden,..and a long honourable et cætera. 1862H. B. Wheatley Anagrams 17. 1943 J. T. Shipley Dict. World Lit. 482/1 Rhopalic verse,..wedge verse, in which each word is one syllable longer than the preceding one. Occasionally, of a stanza in which each line is a foot longer than the preceding line, as Crashaw's Wishes to His Supposed Mistress. 1956[see epanaleptic adj. s.v. epana-]. 1975W. R. Espy Almanac of Words at Play p. xxii, Rhopalic, a snowballing line or passage in which each successive word has one more syllable (or letter) than the last.
Hence rhopalism |ˈrəʊpəlɪz(ə)m|, composition of rhopalic verses.
1862Macm. Mag. Nov. 15 Taking this line,..‘Goose, gather metrical monstrosities’, any one who chooses may employ himself in searching for the instances of unconscious rhopalism in Shakespear, Milton, or Wordsworth. |