Czech alexandrine Jiří Orten: <poem style="margin-left: 2em; font-style:italic"> </poem> Czech alexandrine Czech alexandrine (in Czech "český alexandrín") is a verse form found in Czech poetry of the 20th century. It is a metre based on French alexandrine. The most important features of the pattern are number of syllables (twelve or thirteen) and a caesura after the sixth syllable. It is an unusual metre, exhibiting characteristics of both syllabic and syllabotonic (accentual-syllabic) metre. Thus it occupies a transitional position between syllabic and accentual patterns of European versification. It stands out from the background of modern Czech versification, which is modeled chiefly after German
Donald Davie's Some Notes on Rhythm in Verse Donald Davie's Some Notes on Rhythm in Verse Some Notes on Rhythm in Verse by Donald Davie first appeared in the "Agenda" poetry journal, in the Autumn / Winter issue 1972–73, and was later collected in his book of essays and interviews, "Trying To Explain." It is a short piece comprising seven numbered paragraphs. He makes a case for scansion being 'a sort of crutch or scaffolding in the act of composition'. The first paragraph states that the boundary between free verse and metred verse is 'smudged'. He writes: "If you shorten an iambic measure to the trimeter, and then