hexameters
Six-footed verse lines
Hexameters are lines of verse with six metrical feet, the dominant form of classical Greek and Latin epic poetry.
Homer's *Iliad* and *Odyssey* and Virgil's *Aeneid* were composed in dactylic hexameter—six feet of dactyls (one long syllable followed by two short) with variations.
English poets have attempted hexameters, though the form sits less naturally in a stress-based language: Longfellow wrote Evangeline in hexameters.
Three-beat poetic meter
- scansionAnalyzing verse rhythm patterns
- caesuraPause within a line
- spondeeDouble-stress metrical unit
- quantitativeConcerning measurable amounts
Ancient Greek war epic
- OdysseyEpic of homecoming
- HomerAncient Greek epic composer
- dactylicThree-beat poetic meter
- AchillesGreek hero, mortal heel
Hector · Troy · epithets · oral tradition · catalogue · invocation · rosy-fingered · wine-dark
Classical epic poet
- AeneidRoman founding epic
- OvidAncient Roman poet
- MetamorphosesStories of radical change
- HoraceMale name from antiquity
Lucretius · silver age · Augustan · classical · quantitative
dactylic
Three-beat poetic meter
quantitative · metrical · feet · syllables · thesis · dactyl · elision
Iliad
Ancient Greek war epic
Achilles · Hector · Troy · epithets · oral tradition · catalogue · invocation · rosy-fingered · wine-dark · swift-footed
Virgil
Classical epic poet
- AeneidRoman founding epic
- OvidAncient Roman poet
- MetamorphosesStories of radical change
Lucretius · Horace · silver age · Augustan · classical · quantitative
verse
Metered poetic passage
invocation · catalogue · epic simile · narrative · grandeur · lofty · elevated · Muse · Beowulf · Paradise Lost
- Horacecarpe diem, Augustus, golden mean, lyric poetry, Augustan age
hexametersfree verse
Poetry without fixed structure
prose · sprung rhythm · prose poetry · iambic pentameter · blank verse