Alexandrine
Quick answer: An alexandrine is a twelve syllable poetic line, iambic hexameter in English and the grand metre of French verse. Learn how it works in both traditions.
An alexandrine is a twelve syllable line of verse: in English, an iambic hexameter with six beats; in French, the classical twelve syllable line with a fixed pause after the sixth syllable. The name likely comes from medieval French romances about Alexander the Great written in the measure. Few terms straddle two poetic cultures so completely, and the line means something slightly different in each.
In French, the alexandrine is the grand national metre, the sound of Racine's tragedies, Hugo's flood of verse and Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal. In English it is a guest rather than a resident: a longer line that visits pentameter poems for special occasions, most famously as the twelfth line that closes every Spenserian stanza. Knowing both roles lets you read across traditions.
How It Works
The English alexandrine runs six iambs, as in this original line: 'The orchard holds its breath before the first apples fall.' The French line counts twelve syllables and traditionally splits at the caesura into two six-syllable halves called hemistichs; classical French poets treated that midpoint pause as nearly inviolable, while Hugo and later poets loosened it to gain dramatic flexibility. Either way, the line's character is balance: two equal halves, statement and answer, which gives the alexandrine its formal, ceremonial poise.
Where You Will See It
Spenser closed each nine-line stanza of The Faerie Queene with an alexandrine, and the whole Spenserian tradition, including Keats's 'The Eve of St. Agnes' and Shelley's 'Adonais', inherited that final long breath. Pope teased the line in 'An Essay on Criticism' (1711), where a deliberately sluggish alexandrine 'drags its slow length along'. Drayton's 'Poly-Olbion' proved a whole English epic could run on the measure, though few readers have finished it. In French, virtually the entire classical canon from Corneille and Racine to Baudelaire moves in alexandrines.
How to Use It in Your Own Poems
The most reliable modern use is as a closing gesture: end a pentameter stanza or poem with an alexandrine and the reader feels the form settle, like a boat reaching still water. If you write several together, vary the caesura or the halves will tick like a clock. The line also suits balanced, antithetical statements, since its two hemistichs can weigh one idea against another. Formal control of this kind reads well under contest conditions, where structure is scored on purpose rather than polish alone, as Writory's monthly judging sheet has it.
What poets can take from this
- Use a single alexandrine to close a pentameter poem for a built-in dying fall.
- Balance the line's two halves against each other for antithesis or echo.
- Vary the midpoint pause in consecutive alexandrines to avoid clockwork rhythm.
- Read the last lines of Spenserian stanzas to hear the English line at its best.
- Remember the French line counts syllables, not feet, when reading in translation.
Try it yourself
Write a poem of eight iambic pentameter lines about a table being set for a family dinner, then close with one alexandrine in which everyone finally sits down.
Questions
What is the difference between an alexandrine and iambic hexameter?
In English they are effectively the same line: six iambic feet, twelve syllables. The word alexandrine adds the French heritage and often implies the balanced two-part structure with a central pause.
Why does the Spenserian stanza end with an alexandrine?
Spenser used the longer final line to close each stanza with a slower, wider gesture after eight pentameters. The extra foot acts like a musical resolution, which is why later poets kept the design.
Is the French alexandrine iambic?
No. French verse counts syllables rather than stressed feet, so the French alexandrine is defined as twelve syllables with a caesura, not as six iambs. The English adaptation grafted the iambic pattern onto the syllable count.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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