- Hendecasyllable
Hendecasyllable verse (in Italian "endecasillabo") is a kind of verse used mostly in Italian
poetry , defined by its having the last stress on the tenthsyllable . When, as often happens, this stress falls on the penultimate syllable, the line has exactly eleven syllables (and the literal meaning of the word is just "of eleven syllables").The most usual stress schemes for an hendecasyllable are stresses on sixth and tenth syllables (for example, "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita","
Dante Alighieri , first line of "The Divine Comedy )," and on the fourth, seventh and tenth syllables ("Un incalzar di cavalli accorrenti","Ugo Foscolo , "Dei sepolcri ").Most classical Italian poems are composed of hendecasyllables; for example, the major works by Dante,
Francesco Petrarca ,Ludovico Ariosto , andTorquato Tasso . They differ greatly in the rhyme system (fromterza rima toottava , fromsonnet tocanzone . In later poems, since 1800, hendecasyllables are often used without a strict system, with few or no rhymes at all. Examples can be found inGiacomo Leopardi 's "Canti". The effect of "endecasillabi sciolti" (free hendecasyllables) is similar to Englishblank verse .It has a role in Italian poetry, and a formal structure, comparable to the
iambic pentameter in English or thealexandrine in French. A famous example of a hendecasyllabic line in English poetry is JohnKeats 's "Endymion ," which begins, "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever"; the last part of "ever" is the eleventh syllable.This form is not to be confused with "hendecasyllabics", a quantitative meter used by
Catullus .References
*Raffaele Spongano, "Nozioni ed esempi di metrica italiana", Bologna, R. Pàtron, 1966
*Angelo Marchese, "Dizionario di retorica e di stilistica", Milano, Mondadori, 1978
*Mario Pazzaglia, "Manuale di metrica italiana", Firenze, Sansoni, 1990
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