Alexandrine introduce phrasal accentuation, or rigorously observe the medial caesura, as in French." Common usage within the literatures of European languages is broader still, embracing lines syllabic, accentual-syllabic, and (inevitably) stationed ambivalently between the two; lines of 12, 13, or even 14 syllables; lines with obligatory, predominant, and optional caesurae. Although alexandrines occurred in French verse as early as the 12th century, they were slightly looser rhythmically, and vied with the "décasyllabe" and "octosyllabe" for cultural prominence and use in various genres. "The alexandrine came into its own in the middle of the sixteenth century with the poets of the Pléiade
Iamb (poetry) of six iambic feet. In English verse, "alexandrine" is typically used to mean "iambic hexameter" Ye sacred Bards, that to ¦ your harps' melodious strings Sung th'ancient Heroes' deeds (the monuments of Kings) (Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion) Iambic Heptameter is a meter referring to a line consisting of seven iambic feet: Through iambic shortening, a word with the shape "light–heavy" or "short–long" changes to become "light–light". Iamb (poetry) An iamb () or iambus is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. Originally the term referred to one of the feet of the quantitative meter of classical Greek prosody: a