Hendecasyllable
[2] The three Aeolic hendecasyllables (with base and choriamb in bold) are: (Latin: hendecasyllabus phalaecius): This line is named after Phalaecus, a minor poet probably of the 4th century BC, who used it in epigrams; though he did not invent it, since it had earlier been used by Sappho and Anacreon.
Cornēlī, tibi: namque tū solēbās meās ess(e) aliquid putāre nūgās[5] To whom dedicate this, my charming new book, Freshly burnished with pumice stone to fine sheen?
φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θέοισιν ἔμμεν' ὤνηρ, ὄττις ἐνάντιός τοι ἰσδάνει καὶ πλάσιον ἆδυ φονεί- σας ὐπακούει[9] He, it seems to me, is completely godlike: Ah, that man who's sitting across from you, there, Leaning in and listening to your sweet voice, Charmed by your laughter.
Lines of ten or twelve syllables are more common in rhymed verse; versi sciolti, which rely more heavily on a pleasant rhythm for effect, tend toward a stricter eleven-syllable format.
As a novelty, lines longer than twelve syllables can be created by the use of certain verb forms and affixed enclitic pronouns ("Ottima è l'acqua; ma le piante abbeverinosene.").
A line in which accents fall consistently on even-numbered syllables ("Al còr gentìl rempàira sèmpre amóre") is called iambic (giambico) and may be a greater or lesser hendecasyllable.
Most classical Italian poems are composed in hendecasyllables, including the major works of Dante, Francesco Petrarca, Ludovico Ariosto, and Torquato Tasso.
The rhyme systems used include terza rima, ottava, sonnet and canzone, and some verse forms use a mixture of hendecasyllables and shorter lines.
An early example is Le Api ("the bees") by Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai, written around 1517 and published in 1525 (with formal equivalent paraphrase which mirrors the original's syllabic counts, varied caesurae, and line- and hemistich-final stress profiles):
Mentr'era per cantare i vostri doni Con alte rime, o Verginette caste, Vaghe Angelette delle erbose rive, Preso dal sonno, in sul spuntar dell'Alba M'apparve un coro della vostra gente, E dalla lingua, onde s'accoglie il mele, Sciolsono in chiara voce este parole: O spirto amico, che dopo mill'anni, E cinque cento, rinovar ti piace E le nostre fatiche, e i nostri studi, Fuggi le rime, e'l rimbombar sonoro.
[12] While your delightful gifts | I aimed at singing In lofty rime | O little vestal virgins, Sweet little seraphim | of grassy margins, Sleep ravished me | in the first light of morning, And I beheld a chorus | of your people, Who, with their tongues | which lately sipped at honey, Buzzed forth in the clear air | this earnest message: "O friendly soul who | (after thousand summers And more five hundred) | beguiles us with singing Our industrious toil | our balmy study… Abandon rime | and its rebounding echo!"
Ktokolwiek będziesz w Nowogródzkiej stronie, Do Płużyn ciemnego boru Wjechawszy, pomnij zatrzymać twe konie, Byś się przypatrzył jezioru.
[16] Armes, and the Men above the vulgar File, Who from the Western Lusitanian shore Past ev'n beyond the Trapobanian-Isle, Through Seas which never Ship has sayld before; Who (brave in action, patient in long Toyle, Beyond what strength of humane nature bore) 'Mongst Nations, under other Stars, acquir'd A modern Scepter which to Heaven aspir'd.
Spanish dramatists often use hendecasyllables in tandem with shorter lines like heptasyllables, as can be seen in Rosaura's opening speech from Calderón's La vida es sueño:
