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
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