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Decasyllabic line

Meter
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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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

A line of verse containing ten syllables, common in English poetry

Detailed Definition
A decasyllabic line is a verse line containing ten syllables, commonly used in French poetry (e.g., the alexandrine’s precursor) and occasionally in English to approximate iambic pentameter without strict stress patterns; its regularity provides rhythmic stability while allowing flexibility in accent placement, often lending a measured, oratorical quality to the verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The curfew tolls the knell of parting day” (Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”); “To be, or not to be, that is the question” (Shakespeare, Hamlet); “She walks in beauty, like the night” (Byron); “The woods are lovely, dark and deep” (Frost, though iambic tetrameter, often misremembered—true decasyllabic: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”)
Additional Notes
A decasyllabic line contains ten syllables; often iambic pentameter in English but can follow other stress patterns—foundational in blank verse and many traditional forms.
Also Known As
Ten-syllable line decasyllable iambic pentameter line heroic line 10-syllable verse
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