A single line of poetry—that is, a series of feet set in a recognized order—is called a Verse.
A verse lacking a syllable at the end is called Catalectic, that is, having a pause to fill the measure; when the end syllable is not lacking, the verse is called Acatalectic, and has no such pause.
A final syllable, regularly short, is sometimes lengthened before a pause:
it is then said to be long by Diastole:—
- nostrōrum obruimur,oriturque miserrima caedēs.—Aen. 2.411.
The last syllable of any verse may be indifferently long or short (syllaba anceps).
To divide the verse into its appropriate measures, according to the rules of quantity and versification, is called scanning or scansion (scānsiō, a climbing or advance by steps, from scandō).
In scanning, a vowel or diphthong at the end of a word (unless an interjection) is partially suppressed when the next word begins with a vowel or with h. This is called Elision (bruising).
In reading it is usual entirely to suppress elided syllables. Strictly, however, they should be sounded lightly.
In early Latin poetry a final syllable ending in s often loses this letter even before a consonant (cf. § 15.7):—
- seniō cōnfectu s quiēscit.—Enn. (Cat. M. 14).
A final m, with the preceding vowel, is suppressed in like manner when the next word begins with a vowel or h: this is called Ecthlipsis (squeezing out):—
- mōnstrum horrendum, īnforme, ingēns, cui lūmen adēmptum.
- —Aen. 3.658.
Elision is sometimes omitted when a word ending in a vowel has a special emphasis, or is succeeded by a pause. This omission is called Hiatus (gaping).