Verse Forms and Metres in Livonian Humanist Poetry: David Hilchen and his Ancient Models

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to give an account of verse forms in David Hilchen’s poetry. In the paper the metrical structures and rhythmic regularities in poems gathered from different periods of his creation are studied and the results are compared with the data from ancient Latin authors. Some aspects of the prosodic features in Hilchen’s verse are discussed as well. The paper will demonstrate the prosodic and rhythmic variety of the metres used, which resembles the rhythmic preferences of ancient models and early modern verse.