hexameter

Speech parts

1. hexameter - Noun

2. hexameter - Adjective

Meaning

A verse of six feet, the first four of which may be either dactyls or spondees, the fifth must regularly be a dactyl, and the sixth always a spondee. In this species of verse are composed the Iliad of Homer and the Aeneid of Virgil. In English hexameters accent takes the place of quantity.

Having six metrical feet, especially dactyls and spondees.

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Examples

A treatise on poetry by Diomedes Grammaticus is a good example, as this work (among other things) categorizes dactylic hexameter verses in ways that were later interpreted under the golden line rubric. Source: Internet

Homer also altered the forms of words to allow them to fit the hexameter, typically by using a dialectal form: ptolis is an epic form used instead of the Attic polis wherever it is necessary for the meter. Source: Internet

Classical epic employs dactylic hexameter and recounts a journey, either physical (as typified by Odysseus in the Odyssey ) or mental (as typified by Achilles in the Iliad ) or both. Source: Internet

Hesiod's handling of the dactylic hexameter was not as masterful or fluent as Homer's and one modern scholar refers to his "hobnailed hexameters". Source: Internet

However, the only obvious imperfections are a few lines of verse that are metrically unfinished (i.e. not a complete line of dactylic hexameter ). Source: Internet

If these two features of the language coincide too frequently, they overemphasize each other and the hexameter becomes sing-songy. Source: Internet

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