Hexameter

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Hexameter

Hexameter is a literary

Literature

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" . In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and non-fiction....
and poetic

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
form, a line

Line (poetry)

A line in poetry is a unit of language into which a poem is divided which operates on principles which are distinct from and not necessarily coincident with grammatical structures such as the sentence or clauses in sentences....
consisting of six metrical feet, as in the Iliad
ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
. It was the standard epic metre in Greek and became standard for Latin too. It was also used in other types of composition -- in Horace

Horace

This article is about the Roman poet Horace. For other uses, see Horace .Quintus Horatius Flaccus, , known in the English language world as Horace, was the leading Roman Empire Lyric poetry during the time of Augustus....
's satires, for instance, and Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
's Metamorphoses
Metamorphoses (poem)

The Metamorphoses by the Ancient Rome poet Ovid is a Narrative poetry in fifteen books that describes the Creation myth and history of the world....
. In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, hexameter was invented by Phemonoe

Phemonoe

In Greek mythology, Phemonoe was a Greek poetess of the ante-Homeric period. She was said to have been the daughter of Apollo, his first priestess at Delphi, and the inventor of the hexameter verses, a type of poetry metre ....
.

The hexameter has never enjoyed a similar popularity in English, where the standard metre is iambic pentameter

Iambic pentameter

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Encyclopedia

Hexameter is a literary

Literature

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
form, a line

Line (poetry)

Horace

Ovid

Greek mythology

Phemonoe

Iambic pentameter

Iambic pentameter is a type of meter that is used in poetry and drama. It describes a particular rhythm that the words establish in each Line ....
; however, various English poems have been written in hexameter over the centuries. There are numerous examples of iambic hexameter from the 16th century and a few from the 17th; the most prominent of these is Michael Drayton

Michael Drayton

Michael Drayton was an England poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era....
's Poly-Olbion
Poly-Olbion

The Poly-Olbion is a topographical poem describing England and Wales. Written by Michael Drayton and published in 1612, it was reprinted with a second part in 1622....
(1612) in hexameter couplets. An example from Drayton:

Nor any other wold like Cotswold ever sped,

So rich and fair a vale in fortuning to wed.

In the 17th century the iambic hexameter, or alexandrine

Alexandrine

An alexandrine is a line of Meter comprising 12 syllables. Alexandrines are common in the German literature of the German literature of the Baroque period and in List of French language poets of the early modern and modern periods....
, was used as a substitution in the heroic couplet

Heroic couplet

A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English literature poetry, commonly used for epic poetry and narrative poetry; it refers to poems constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter lines....
, and as one of the types of permissible lines in lyrical stanzas and the Pindaric odes of Cowley

Abraham Cowley

Abraham Cowley , England poet, was born in the City of London late in 1618. He was one of the leading English poets of the seventeenth century with 14 printings of his Works published between 1668 and 1721....
and Dryden

John Dryden

John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of English Restoration to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden....
.

In the late 18th century the hexameter was adapted to the Lithuanian language

Lithuanian language

Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognised as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad....
by Kristijonas Donelaitis

Kristijonas Donelaitis

Kristijonas Donelaitis, Latin language: Christian Donalitius was a Lithuanian or by others Prussian-Lithuanian or by others Prussian-Lithuanian Lutheran pastor and poet....
. His poem "Metai" (The Seasons)
The Seasons (poem)

'The Seasons' is the first Lithuanian language poem written by Kristijonas Donelaitis around 1765?1775. It was published as "Das Jahr" in K?nigsberg, 1818 in poetry by Ludwig Rhesa, who also entitled the poem and selected the arrangement of the parts....
is considered the most successful hexameter text in Lithuanian as yet.

Several attempts were made in the 19th century to naturalise the dactylic hexameter

Dactylic hexameter

Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme. It is traditionally associated with the quantitative meter of classical epic poetry in both Greek language and Latin, and was consequently considered to be the Grand Style of classical poetry....
to English, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an United States educator and poet whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride ", The Song of Hiawatha, and "Evangeline"....
, Arthur Hugh Clough

Arthur Hugh Clough

Arthur Hugh Clough was an England poet, and the brother of Anne Clough....
and others, none of them particularly successful. Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins , was an England poet, Roman Catholicism convert, and Society of Jesus priest, whose 20th-century fame established him posthumously among the leading Victorian poets....
wrote many of his poems in six foot iambic and sprung rhythm

Sprung rhythm

Sprung rhythm is a poetic rhythm designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech. It is constructed from Foot in which the first syllable is stressed and may be followed by a variable number of unstressed syllables....
lines. In the 20th century a loose ballad-like six-foot line with a strong medial pause was used by William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats

File:William Butler Yeat by George Charles Beresford.jpgWilliam Butler Yeats was an Irish people poet and dramatist and one of the foremost figures of 20th century in literature....
. The iambic six-foot line has also been used occasionally, and an accentual six-foot line has been used by translators from the Latin and many poets.

See also: Dactylic hexameter

Dactylic hexameter

External links

by Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an England poet, critic and Philosophy who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romanticism in England and one of the Lake Poets....
, a tutorial on Latin dactylic hexameter at Skidmore College
Skidmore College

Skidmore College is a private, Liberal arts colleges in the United States located in Saratoga Springs, New York, New York, United States. The college currently enrolls approximately 2,500 students and offers Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in more than 60 areas of study....
.