The Fly

Alexandrine Verse form popularized in France in which lines contain 12 syllables (and sometimes 13). Major accents occur on the sixth and 12th syllables; two minor accents occur, one before the sixth syllable and one before the twelfth syllable. A pause (caesura) occurs immediately after the sixth syllable. Generally, there is no enjambment in the French Alexandrine line. However, enjambment does occur in English translations of Alexandrine verse. The name Alexandrine derives from a 12th Century work about Alexander the Great that was written in this verse format. Jean Baptiste Racine was one of the masters of this format. Some English writers later adapted the format in their poetry. ALEXANDRINE: A twelve-syllable line written in iambic hexameter. Alexandrines were especially popular in French poetry for drama between 1500-1800 CE, but their invention dates back to the late 1100s. The earliest medieval examples include Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne à Jérusalem and Roman d'Alexandre (from which the name alexandrine comes). Racine in particular makes good use of it in Andromaque. Classical French Alexandrines are a bit different from modern English ones in that a strong stress falls on the on the sixth and last syllables with a "wandering" unstressed syllable that can appear in-between the strong stresses on each side of the caesura. An example of an English Alexandrine appears in the second line of Alexander Pope's couplet:
A needless Alexandrine ends the song
That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.
The form has been less popular in English, and Pope actually mocks it in his Essay on Criticism. However, Spenser uses an Alexandrine to good effect as part of his spenserian stanza. Robert Bridges speaks of his "loose Alexandrines" in The Testament of Beauty, which consists of unrhymed, metrically irregular twelve-syllable lines (though in many cases, the twelve-syllables are the result of elision).

Rhyme is a pattern of words that contain similar... [continues]

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