01564--Anacreontics

Anacreontics is verses resembling, either metrically or in subject-matter, those of the Greek poet Anacreon (6th century BCE) or of his later imitators in the collection known as the Anacreontea. Metrically, the original Anacreontic line combined long (-) and short (w) syllables in the pattern uu-u-u--. It was imitated in English by Sir Philip Sidney. More often, though, the term refers to the subject-matter: the celebration of love and drinking.