Latin poetic elision — Classical languages, 14–17
Latin poets sometimes leave out a word-final vowel before the next word begins with a vowel. Elision helps the rhythm fit the chosen metre, so the written line and the counted line are not always identical.
A written vowel can vanish in the rhythm
When one Latin word ends in a vowel and the next begins with a vowel or h, poetry may elide the first vowel. You still see it on the page, but you do not count it as a separate syllable when scanning the verse.
Why poets used it
A metre gives a line a fixed pattern of long and short syllables. Ordinary speech does not always land on that pattern, so elision lets a poet smooth a crowded join without changing the words or inventing an extra syllable.
Reading multum ille et
Take the phrase multum ille et terris, “that man much and on lands”, from a poetic line. The final -e of ille meets the initial e- of et, so scanning treats the join as ille(t): the first vowel is elided. Mark that loss before counting the metre.
Do not erase it from the meaning
Elision changes the metre, not normally the grammar or meaning. It is reasonable to cross the vowel out completely after hearing “it disappears”, but keep the word when translating; remove it only from your rhythmic count.
A key to hearing Roman poetry
Elision matters when you read Virgil or Ovid aloud, scan a line or compare different performances. It explains why a line can sound tight and flowing at once: the spelling preserves the words, while the metre controls how they meet.
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