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Twelve-syllable 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 poetic line consisting of twelve syllables, especially in French tradition.

Detailed Definition
A Twelve-syllable line, or alexandrine, is a metrical line of twelve syllables often used in French poetry and English couplets for stateliness or closure; in English, it may appear as a hexameter variant, providing rhythmic contrast to pentameter, as in the grand, sweeping lines of Dryden or the solemn final lines of Spenserian stanzas.
Example
Example in poetry:
Alexandrine line: “The curfew tolls the knell of parting day” — 12 syllables; French classical verse standard; “And still they gaze, and still the wonder grows” — Pope’s iambic hexameter (12 syllables); “Upon the midnight clear, the stars shine bright” — lyrical 12-syllable line
Additional Notes
Twelve-syllable line|A line of verse containing exactly twelve syllables, which in English often falls into alexandrine (iambic hexameter) or a form of fourteeners (septenary) if the stress pattern is mixed.
Also Known As
Alexandrine Twelve-foot line Dozen-syllable line Dodecasyllable
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