Asclepiad (poetry)
An Asclepiad is a line of poetry following a particular metrical pattern. The form is attributed to Asclepiades of Samos and is one of the Aeolic metres.
As with other Aeolic metrical lines, the asclepiad is built around a choriamb. The Asclepiad may be described as a glyconic that has been expanded with one or two further choriambs. The pattern is:
x x - u u - - u u - u -
x x - u u - - u u - - u u - u -
West designates the Asclepiad as a "choriambically expanded glyconic" with the notation glc or gl2c.
Asclepiads were used in Latin by Horace in thirty-four of his odes, as well as by Catullus in Poem 30, and Seneca. Examples in English verse include parts of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia and W. H. Auden's "In Due Season".
