ALEXANDRINE, or Alexandrian, in Poetry, the Name of a kind of Verse, which consists of twelve and thirteen Syllables alternately; the rest or Pause being always on the sixth Syllable. See VERSE. It is said to have taken its Name from a Poem on the Life of Alexander, intitled, the Alexandriad; written, or at least translated into this kind of Verse by some French Poets: though others will have it denominated from one of the Translators, Alexander Paris. This Verse is thought by some very proper in the Epopee, and the more sublime Kinds of Poetry: for which Reason it is also called Heroic Verse. See HEROIC.
It answers in our Language to the Hexameters in the Greek and Latin. Chapman’s Translation of Homer, consists wholly of Alexandrines.
