Literary terms – Alexandrine

alexandrine,SPENSERIAN STANZA,iambic HEXAMETER,Alexander Pope and alexandrine,IAMBIC PENTAMETER,French alexandrine

Literary terms – Alexandrine

A twelve-syllable poetic line. The original French alexandrine, containing four accented syllables, became the standard verse FORM of seventeenth-century French TRAGEDY. The English alexandrine, an iambic HEXAMETER line has been used more sparingly because its six accents make it seem overly long. In the second line of this COUPLET, Alexander Pope illustrates the alexandrine as he criticizes it:

A needless Alexandrine ends the song,

That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.

Edmund Spenser used the alexandrine effectively as the ninth and final line in an otherwise IAMBIC PENTAMETER STANZA he invented, known as the SPENSERIAN STANZA.

See also:

HEXAMETER,

IAMBIC PENTAMETER,

METER.