Sherry Chandler » More on Language on May Day
More on Language on May Day
Before Langdon could even ponder what ancient password the verse was trying to reveal, he felt something far more fundamental resonate within him—the meter of the poem. Iambic pentameter.
Langdon had come across this meter often over the years while researching secret societies across Europe, including just last year in the Vatican Secret Archives. For centuries, iambic pentameter had been a preferred poetic meter of outspoken literati across the globe, from the ancient Greek writer Archilochus to Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer, and Voltaire—bold souls who chose to write their social commentaries in a meter that many of the day believed had mystical properties. The roots of iambic pentameter were deeply pagan.
Iambs. Two syllables with opposite emphasis. Stressed and unstressed. Yin yang. A balanced pair. Arranged in strings of five. Pentameter. Five for the pentacle of Venus and the sacred feminine.
“It’s pentameter!” Teabing blurted, turning to Langdon. “And the verse is in English! La lingua pura!”
— from Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code
Good to know Milton was deeply pagan.
I have good friends, friends whose intelligence I respect, who like this novel. But I must agree with Ron Silliman, who says “The Da Vinci Code is to great literature what Indiana Jones is to great cinema.”
Though I have to say I enjoyed Indiana Jones and I did not enjoy The Da Vinci Code.
Silliman is good on this subject.
One should never take one’s eyes off the blog roll.
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