CHAPTER III.
ON THE CHANGING METRES (ఉపజాతివృత్తాలు).
48. In the changing metres different feet may be used in the same places, provided they contain a certain1 number of short syllables.i[1]
A long syllable is here considered equal to two short ones. Thus in Vemana, II, 26.
"Why be entranced at viewing her charms?"
Of these five feet, three are tribrachs and two trochees; but as each of these equals three shorts, the five are equal in quantity.
49. The feet used in the changing metres are thus formed. From the table of eight feet (given in the first chapter,) reject M and Y (the molossus and bacchic) which are never used in the changing metres. There will then remain six, of which three (S, J, and N) begin with a short syllable. To each of these prefix a short syllable; which will make it equal to the foot above it.
- ↑ 1 Thus in Latin prosody a hexameter, having dactyls and spondees at pleasure, might be called a changing metre, while a sapphic, being unalterable in its form, would be termed fixed metre. The name f^Sj;3 *Q is also given to fixed metres more than 2S syllables in length ; but in that meaning it is very rarely used.
