Hexameter is ametricalline of verses consisting of sixfeet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in anEnglish line ofpoetry; inGreek as well as inLatin a "foot" is not anaccent, but describes various combinations ofsyllables). It was the standard epic metre in classical Greek and Latin literature, such as in theIliad,Odyssey andAeneid. Its use in other genres of composition includeHorace's satires,Ovid'sMetamorphoses, and the Hymns of Orpheus. According toGreek mythology, hexameter was invented byPhemonoe, daughter ofApollo and the firstPythia of Delphi.[1][2]
In classical hexameter, the six feet follow these rules:
A short syllable (υ) is a syllable with a short vowel and no consonant at the end. A long syllable (–) is a syllable that either has a long vowel, one or more consonants at the end (or along consonant), or both. Spaces between words are not counted in syllabification, so for instance "cat" is a long syllable in isolation, but "cat attack" would be syllabified as short-short-long: "ca", "ta", "tack" (υ υ –).
Variations of the sequence from line to line, as well as the use ofcaesura (logical full stops within the line) are essential in avoiding what may otherwise be a monotonous sing-song effect.
Although the rules seem simple, it is hard to use classical hexameter in English, because English is astress-timed language that condenses vowels and consonants between stressed syllables, while hexameter relies on the regular timing of the phonetic sounds. Languages having the latter properties (i.e., languages that are not stress-timed) include Ancient Greek, Latin, Lithuanian and Hungarian.
While the above classical hexameter has never enjoyed much popularity in English, where the standard metre isiambic pentameter, English poems have frequently been written iniambic hexameter. There are numerous examples from the 16th century and a few from the 17th; the most prominent of these isMichael Drayton'sPoly-Olbion (1612) in couplets of iambic hexameter. An example from Drayton (marking the six feet on each line):
In the 17th century the iambic hexameter, also calledalexandrine, was used as a substitution in theheroic couplet, and as one of the types of permissible lines in lyrical stanzas and thePindaric odes ofCowley andDryden.
Several attempts were made in the 19th century to naturalise thedactylic hexameter to English — byHenry Wadsworth Longfellow,Arthur Hugh Clough, and others — none of them particularly successful.Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote many of his poems in six-foot iambic andsprung rhythm lines. In the 20th century a loose ballad-like six-foot line with a strong medial pause was used byWilliam Butler Yeats. The iambic six-foot line has also been used occasionally, and an accentual six-foot line has been used by translators from the Latin and many poets.
In the late 18th century the hexameter was adapted to theLithuanian language byKristijonas Donelaitis. His poem"Metai" (The Seasons) is considered the most successful hexameter text in Lithuanian as yet.
For dactylic hexameter poetry inHungarian language, seeDactylic hexameter#In Hungarian.
Albert Meyer [de] (1893–1962) used a natural form of hexameter in his translation of some verses from Homer'sOdyssey into the Swiss dialect ofBern.[3]
