Hexameter

Hexameter is a line of verse with six feet, longer than the five-foot line most English poets use.

Pope pokes fun at a six-beat line by writing one, with the stressed syllables in capitals.

That LIKE a WOUNDed SNAKE drags ITS slow LENGTH aLONG

Alexander Pope, "An Essay on Criticism", 1711

What it is

The word comes from the Greek for "six measures". A six-foot line is long enough that it tends to split in the middle at a pause. The iambic version is called the alexandrine. The most famous hexameter is the dactylic hexameter of the ancient epics.

How to spot it

Count the beats, not the syllables. If you tap six times before the line ends, and a pause drops in near the middle, you are likely reading hexameter. In English the iambic six-foot line is rare and usually shows up as a single long line at the end of a stanza. Edmund Spenser used it that way to close each stanza of The Faerie Queene with a held breath. Spotting one is a quick way to see how a poet slows an ending down.

Why it matters to a writer or editor

A line that runs to six feet often feels slow or stately. Used once at the end of a stanza it can act as a held breath. Used throughout, it can tire a reader quickly.

Frequently asked questions

What is an alexandrine?

It is a six-foot iambic line, the standard in French verse. In English it appears mostly as a single long line closing a stanza or a couplet.