Decasyllable

Decasyllable (Italian: decasillabo, French: décasyllabe) is a poetic meter of ten syllables used in poetic traditions of syllabic verse. In languages with a stress accent (accentual verse), it is the equivalent of pentameter with iambs or trochees (particularly iambic pentameter).

Decasyllable was used in epic poetry of the Southern Slavs (for example Serbian epic poetry sung to the gusle instrument).It has also been used as the basic structure for several poetic forms in the English language including the Decasyllabic quatrain as well as in many English sonnets^[1]

Medieval French heroic epics (the chansons de geste) were most often composed in 10 syllable verses (from which, the decasyllable was termed "heroic verse"), generally with a regular caesura after the fourth syllable. (The medieval French romance (roman) was however most often written in 8 syllable (or octosyllable) verse.) Use of the 10 syllable line in French poetry however was eclipsed by the 12 syllable "alexandrine" line, particularly after the 16th century. Paul Valéry's great poem "The Graveyard by the Sea" (Le Cimetière marin) is, however, written in decasyllables.

References

1. ^ Arnold, Thomas. A Manual of English Literature, Historical and Critical. Ginn & Company (1891) p.530

See also

• meter (poetry)
• dodecasyllable - 12 syllable line
• octosyllable - 8 syllable line