Hexameter and Pentameter
. An alternate metre; often called elegiac verse. Hexameter as described below. Pentameter verse is divided into two parts, each of which ends with an extra long syllable. The former half consists of two metres, dactyls or spondees; the latter half must be two dactyls. The following is a rhyming specimen in English:
Would you be happy an hour, dine well; for a day, tend a wedding;
If for a week, buy a house; if for a month, wed a spouse;
Would you be happy six months, buy a horse; if for twelve, start a carriage;
Happiness long as you live, only contentment can give.
This metre might be introduced, and would suit epigrams and short poems.
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Entry taken from
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,
edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.