alexandrine, verse form that is the leading measure in French poetry. It consists of a line of 12 syllables with major stresses on the 6th syllable (which precedes the medial caesura [pause]) and on the last syllable, and one secondary accent in each half line. Because six syllables is a normal breath group and the secondary stresses can be on any other syllables in the line, the alexandrine is a flexible form, adaptable to a wide range of subjects. Its structural metrical principle is stress according to sense; the form thus lends itself to the expression of simple or complex emotions, narrative description, or grandiose patriotic sentiment (it is known as the heroic line in French poetry).
The name alexandrine is probably derived from the early use of the verse in the French Roman d’Alexandre, a collection of romances that was compiled in the 12th century about the adventures of Alexander the Great. Revived in the 16th century by the poets of La Pléiade, especially Pierre de Ronsard, the alexandrine became, in the following century, the preeminent French verse form for dramatic and narrative poetry and reached its highest development in the classical tragedies of Pierre Corneille and Jean Racine. In the late 19th century, a loosening of structure occurred, notable in the work of Paul Verlaine; poets frequently wrote a modified alexandrine, a three-part line known as vers romantique, or trimètre. Vers libre (“free verse”) soon replaced the alexandrine as the leading verse form of French poetry.
In English versification, the alexandrine, also called iambic hexameter, contains six primary accents rather than the two major and two secondary accents of the French. Though it was introduced to England in the 16th century and was adapted to German and Dutch poetry in the 17th century, its success outside France has been limited.