Hexameter

n. [Gr. ἑξάμετρος, of six meters, sc. στίχος, the heroic verse, from ἕξ, six, and μέτρον, measure; Lat. hexameter, Fr. hexamètre.] (Gr. & Lat. Pros.) 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 Æneid of Virgil.

In English hexameters accent takes the place of quantity, and iambuses are generally substituted for spondees. The following lines are hexameters, and are descriptive of this species of verse:—

Strongly it | bears us a- | long on | swelling and | limitless | billows, Nothing be- | fore and | nothing be- | hind but the | sky and | the ocean. Coleridge.

a. Having six metrical feet, especially dactyls and spondees.