Asklepiadische Strophe

Asklepiadische Strophe, a four-line strophe, in which the central portion of the first two lines is made up of two (sometimes three) choriambs (see Choriambus). The name is derived from the Greek poet Asclepiades (c.300 bc). Klopstock occasionally uses the Asclepiadic stanza, e.g. in ‘Die Frühlingsfeier’. The principal German exponent is Hölderlin, who is the author of the following characteristic example:

Trennen/wollten wir uns?/wähnten es gut/und klug?
Da wirs/taten, warum/schröckte, wie, Mord, /die Tat?
Ach! wir kennen uns wenig,
Denn es waltet ein Gott in uns.
(Der Abschied)