Home › Glossary › Letter B

Bounded hexameter

Meter
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Six-foot verse line following the antispastic short-long-long-short pattern.

Detailed Definition
Bounded hexameter is a six-foot metrical line adhering to classical or adapted quantitative rules—such as dactylic hexameter in Latin epic or accentual-syllabic variants in English—that maintains consistent length and rhythmic contour; though rare in English due to linguistic differences, poets like Longfellow (Evangeline) have employed it for grandeur and narrative sweep.
Example
Example in poetry:
Bounded hexameter fixes six feet with strict syllabic and stress rules; Classical dactylic hexameter in Virgil’s “Aeneid” is bounded; English attempts, like Longfellow’s “Evangeline,” use alexandrines; It’s rare in English due to stress-timing; Neo-classical poets preserve it for epic gravity.
Additional Notes
A line of hexameter (six metrical feet) that adheres to a strict, predetermined structure, such as a set number of syllables or a mandatory pause (caesura) in a specific position; The most famous example is the Homeric hexameter; Opposite of a loose or irregular hexameter.
Also Known As
Restricted hexameter Confined hexapody Narrowed six-beat line Antispastic hexameter
Skip to main content