elegiac couplet

British  

noun

1. classical prosody a couplet composed of a dactylic hexameter followed by a dactylic pentameter

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

elegiac couplet

He also brought in the elegiac couplet, which was to attain perfection at the hands of Propertius and Ovid.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia Volume 4, Part 2: Ebert to Estremadura by Various

The professor told me that in his opinion the best elegiac couplet ever written in English was: "Three Patagonian apes with their arms extended akimbo: Three on a rock were they—seedy, but happy withal."

From A New Medley of Memories by Hunter-Blair, David

The elegiac couplet had, of course, been in use at Rome long before; Ennius himself had employed it, and in the Ciceronian age Catullus had written in it largely, and not without success.

From Latin Literature by Mackail, J. W. (John William)

Distich, couplet; usually in classical prosody the elegiac couplet of a hexameter and a pentameter, 162.

From The Principles of English Versification by Baum, Paull Franklin

Tate's little treatise on the elegiac couplet correctly analyses the formal side of Ovid's versification.

From The History of Roman Literature From the earliest period to the death of Marcus Aurelius by Cruttwell, Charles Thomas