A verse of six feet, the first four of which may be either dactyls or spondees, the fifth must regularly be a dactyl, and the sixth always a spondee. In this species of verse are composed the Iliad of Homer and the Aeneid of Virgil. In English hexameters accent takes the place of quantity.
(Gr. & Lat. Pros.)
“Leaped like the | roe when he | hears in the | woodland the | voice of the | huntsman.”
— Longfellow.
“Strongly it | bears us a- | long on | swelling and | limitless | billows,
Nothing be- | fore and | nothing be- | hind but the | sky and the | ocean.”
— Coleridge.