Knowra Alexandrine Alexandrine An Alexandrine is a twelve-syllable poetic line, traditionally divided into two six-syllable halves by a caesura. It is a defining meter of French classical verse.
Syllable : A unit of spoken language organized around a vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants. The line’s twelve-count is measured in syllables, whose pronunciation can affect the meter.
Roman d’Alexandre : A medieval French verse romance about Alexander the Great, composed in the twelfth century. The alexandrine takes its name from this romance, which used the line extensively.
French tragedy : A dramatic genre in French literature, especially prominent in the seventeenth century, centered on grave conflicts and elevated style. Classical French tragedy made the alexandrine its characteristic spoken verse line.
Classical alexandrine : A French twelve-syllable line governed by strict rules of caesura, rhythm, and poetic diction. It provides the formal model that later French poets revised and resisted.
Caesura : A pause within a line of poetry, often marking a division between rhythmic units. The traditional alexandrine places its strongest pause between the two six-syllable halves.
Old French literature : Literature written in the French language from roughly the ninth through the fourteenth centuries. The alexandrine emerged in medieval French verse before becoming a classical poetic norm.
Jean Racine : A seventeenth-century French dramatist known for tragedies including Phèdre and Andromaque. Racine’s tightly controlled dialogue demonstrates the alexandrine’s force in French tragedy.
Romantic alexandrine : A French alexandrine whose varied rhythms and enjambments loosen classical conventions. Romantic poets retained the twelve-syllable line while making its movement less predictable.
French prosody : The study and practice of rhythm, meter, rhyme, and sound in French verse. Its rules determine how syllables and rhythmic divisions work in French alexandrines.
Jean-Antoine de Baïf : A sixteenth-century French poet who experimented with quantitative verse and poetic reform. His experiments belong to the Renaissance debates that reshaped French meter and alexandrine practice.
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