Iambic hexameter is a 12-syllable verse with six iambs, often associated with French poetry. Alexandrine, a classic French form of poetry, was occasionally used in English poetry. Iambic refers to the pairing of syllables, and the rhythm is derived from the sounds of individual syllables in some languages.
In poetry, iambic hexameter refers to a type of meter. It is a verse made up of 12 syllables. The line can have thirteen syllables if the thirteenth and last syllable of the line is unstressed. As a metre, iambic hexameter is often associated with a form of French poetry called Alexandrine. Meter was rarely used in English poetry, but some poets incorporated alexandrine into English verse as a rhyming couplet at the end of a line of verse.
Iambic refers to the pairing of syllables in each word of the verse, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed or stressed syllable is called an “iamb”. Successive iambus groupings in the lines give the poem its rhythm. In metric terms, one iambic equals one “foot” of meter. Hexameter refers to the fact that each line is made up of six iambs.
The Alexandrine was a classic form of French poetry and a very popular one. Its name may come from the fact that it was developed during the time of Alexander the Great of Macedon. It may also have originated from verses specially composed to honor him. Poets of the time considered the meter flexible and adaptable to many themes.
In the English language, Alexandrine was not used very often. It occasionally appeared in English poetry during the 17th and 18th centuries. Ironically, one of the most frequently cited examples of the Alexandrine was written by the English poet Alexander Pope, describing why he found it ill-suited to English verse. In his Essay on Criticism, he gave an example of the Alexandrian who also questioned its usefulness: “A useless Alexandrian ends the song / who like a wounded snake drags its slow length”.
Not all English poets agreed with Pope. The 16th-century English poet, Edmund Spencer, creator of the Spenserian sonnet, incorporated Alexandrian rhyming couplets as the final lines of stanzas in his sonnets. English Romantic poet William Wordsworth’s famous Immortality Ode also used iambic hexameter: “The things/that I have/have seen/now/can see/no more”.
Iambic hexameter is now rarely used in English poetry. In cultures with other language traditions, the meter has a different meaning if it exists. In Japan, a country with an ancient and important poetic tradition, all the syllables of the Japanese language have the same accent. The meter becomes somewhat more complex, because the rhythm is derived from the sounds of individual syllables rather than the syllabic accent. In many other Asian languages, tone may form the most important part of what English speakers would think of as meter.
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