French alexandrine French alexandrine The French alexandrine () is a syllabic poetic meter of (nominally and typically) 12 syllables with a medial caesura dividing the line into two hemistichs (half-lines) of six syllables each. It was the dominant long line of French poetry from the 17th through the 19th century, and influenced many other European literatures which developed alexandrines of their own. According to verse historian Mikhail Gasparov, the French alexandrine developed from the Ambrosian octosyllable, by gradually losing the final two syllables, then doubling this line in a syllabic context with phrasal stress rather than length as a marker. The earliest
Free verse spaced prose, a mosaic of verse and prose experience. Free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. Poets have explained that free verse is not totally free: "Its only freedom is from the tyrant demands of the metered line." Free verse displays some elements of form. Most free verse maintains the poetic convention of the poetic line to some degree, at least in written representations, Donald Hall goes as far as to say that "the "form" of free verse is as binding and as liberating as