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Hexameter Verse

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A line of poetry consisting of six measures, the fifth being a dactyl and the sixth either a spondee or a trochee. The other four may be either dactyls or spondees. Homer’s two epic poems and Virgil’s Æneid are written in hexameters. The latter begins thus:

Arms and the | man I | sing, who | driven from | Troy by ill- | fortune

First into | Italy | came, as | far as the | shores of La- | vina.

Much was he harassed by land, much tossed on the pitiless ocean,

All by the force of the gods, and relentless anger of Juno.


E. C. B.

Or rhyming with the Latin,


“Arma virumque cano Trojæ qui primus ab oris.”

Arms and the man I sing who first from the Phrygian shore is.

“Italiam Fato profugus, Lavinaque venit …”

Tossed to the land of Lavina, although Jove’s queen didnʹt mean it.


E. C. B.

⁂ Longfellow’s Evangeline is in English hexameters.

 

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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.

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Hesperia
Hesperides
Hesperus
Hesychasts (pron. He-se-kasts)
Hetærism
Hetman
Heu-monat or Heg-monath
Hewson
Hexameron (The)
Hexameter and Pentameter
Hexameter Verse
Hexapla
Hext
Heyday of Youth
Hiawatha
Hibernia
Hic Jacets
Hickathrift (Tom or Jack)
Hickory
Hidalgo
Hide of Land (A)

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Homeric Verse