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Funereal hexameter

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 hexameter line used in elegies or funeral poems, often slow, solemn, and measured to convey dignity, mourning, or memorial gravity.

Detailed Definition
A six-foot metrical line used in mourning or funeral poetry, adapting classical elegiac meter to English verse. The hexameter's expansive rhythm creates appropriate solemnity and scope for funeral contexts, though it appears less frequently in English than pentameter due to the challenges of maintaining six feet naturally in English syntax, requiring careful management of stress patterns to avoid artificial or forced rhythms while preserving the dignity appropriate to elegiac purposes.
Example
Example in poetry:
Funereal hexameter uses dactylic hexameter for mourning: Longfellow’s “Evangeline” (“This is the forest primeval”); Tennyson’s “To Virgil” adapts classical elegy; modern examples include Derek Walcott’s “Omeros” blending Homeric meter with Caribbean lament; A.E. Stallings’ “The Boat” uses hexameter for refugee elegy; rare in English but evokes epic gravity in grief.
Additional Notes
Adapts classical elegiac meter to English. Six feet create expansive, serious line. Less common in English than pentameter due to language differences from Latin and Greek.
Also Known As
Elegiac hexameter Six-foot mourning line Hexameter lament Six-measure dirge
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