Editing Dactylic hexameter (section)

==In modern languages==
===In English===
Many poets have attempted to write dactylic hexameters in English, though few works composed in the meter have stood the test of time. Most such works are accentual rather than quantitative. Perhaps the most famous is [[Longfellow]]'s "[[Evangeline]]", whose first lines are as follows:

:"This is the / forest pri/meval. The / murmuring / pines and the / hemlocks
:Bearded with / moss, and in / garments / green, indis/tinct in the / twilight,
:Stand like / Druids of / eld, with / voices / sad and pro/phetic..."

Contemporary poet [[Annie Finch]] wrote her epic libretto ''Among the Goddesses'' in dactylic tetrameter, which she claims is the most accurate English accentual equivalent of dactylic hexameter.<ref>"Preface," ''Among the Goddesses: An Epic Libretto in Seven Dreams'' (Red Hen Press, 2010), p. iii-iv.''</ref> Poets who have written quantitative hexameters in English include [[Robert Bridges]] and Rodney Merrill, whose translation of part of the ''[[Iliad]]'' begins as follows (see External links below):

:"Sing now, / goddess, the / wrath of A/chilles the / scion of / Peleus,
:Ruinous / rage, which / brought the A/chaeans un/counted af/flictions;
:Many the / powerful / souls it / sent to the / dwelling of / Hades..."

Although the rules seem simple, it is hard to use classical hexameter in English because English is a [[Isochrony#Stress timing|stress-timed]] language that condenses vowels and consonants between stressed syllables, while hexameter relies on the regular timing of the phonetic sounds. Languages having the latter properties (i.e., languages that are not stress-timed) include Ancient Greek, Latin, Lithuanian and Hungarian.

===In German===
Dactylic hexameter has proved more successful in German than in most modern languages. [[Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock]]'s epic ''[[Der Messias (Klopstock)|Der Messias]]'' popularized accentual dactylic hexameter in [[German Language|German]]. Subsequent German poets to employ the form include [[Goethe]] (notably in his ''[[Reineke Fuchs]]'') and [[Schiller]].

The opening lines of Goethe's {{lang|de|Reineke Fuchs}} ("Reynard the Fox"), written in 1793–1794, are:

:{{lang|de|Pfingsten, das / liebliche / Fest, war ge/kommen; es / grünten und / blühten}}
:{{lang|de|Feld und / Wald; auf / Hügeln und / Höhn, in / Büschen und / Hecken}}
:{{lang|de|Übten ein / fröhliches / Lied die / neuer/munterten / Vögel;}}
:{{lang|de|Jede / Wiese / sproßte von / Blumen in / duftenden / Gründen,}}
:{{lang|de|Festlich / heiter / glänzte der / Himmel und / farbig die / Erde.}}

:"Pentecost, the lovely festival, had come; field and forest
:grew green and bloomed; on hills and ridges, in bushes and hedges
:The newly encouraged birds practised a merry song;
:Every meadow sprouted with flowers in fragrant grounds,
:The sky shone festively cheerfully and the earth was colourful."

===In French===
[[Jean-Antoine de Baïf]] (1532–1589) wrote poems regulated by [[Syllable weight|quantity]] on the Greco–Roman model, a system which came to be known as ''[[Musique mesurée#History|vers mesurés]]'', or ''vers mesurés à l'antique'', which the French language of the Renaissance permitted. To do this, he invented a special phonetic alphabet. In works like his ''Étrénes de poézie Franzoęze an vęrs mezurés'' (1574)<ref>See, for example, ''[https://virga.org/baif/index.php?item=166&metrique=1 Au Roi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818214517/https://virga.org/baif/index.php?item=166&metrique=1 |date=2018-08-18 }}''.</ref> or ''Chansonnettes'' he used the dactylic hexameter, and other meters, in a quantitative way.

An example of one of his elegiac couplets is as follows. The final -e of {{lang|fr|vienne}}, {{lang|fr|autre}}, and {{lang|fr|regarde}} is sounded, and the word {{lang|fr|il}} is pronounced /i/:

:{{lang|fr|Vienne le / beau Nar/cis, qui ja/mais n'aima / autre si/non soi,}}
:{{lang|fr|Et qu'il re/garde te/s yeux, // Et, qu'il se / garde d'ai/mer.}}<ref>Jean-Antoine de Baïf, {{lang|fr|Chansonette}} XV.</ref>
:| – u u | – – | – u u | – – | – u u | – –
:| – u u | – u u | – || – u u | – u u | –
:"Let the handsome Narcissus come, who never loved another except himself,
:and let him look at your eyes, and let him try not to love you."

A modern attempt at reproducing the dactylic hexameter in French is this one, by André Markowicz (1985), translating Catullus's poem 63. Again the final -e and -es of {{lang|fr|pères}}, {{lang|fr|perfide}}, and {{lang|fr|désertes}} are sounded:

:{{lang|fr|C'est ain/si que tu / m'as arra/chée aux au/tels de mes / pères,}}
:{{lang|fr|Pour me lais/ser, per/fide Thé/sée, sur ces / rives dé/sertes ...}}<ref>André Markowicz, {{lang|fr|Le Livre de Catulle}}, éd. L'Âge d'Homme, 1985.</ref>
:| – – | – u u | – u u | – u u | – u u | – – |
:| – u u | – – | – u u | – u u | – u u | – – |
:"Is it for this that you have snatched me from the altars of my ancestors,
:to abandon me, traitorous Theseus, on these deserted shores?"

===In Hungarian===
[[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] is extremely suitable to hexameter (and other forms of poetry based on [[metre (poetry)|quantitative meter]]).<ref>[http://real-eod.mtak.hu/2714/1/M%C3%BCvelt_magyar_nyelvtan_elemi_r%C3%A9sze.pdf  A magyar nyelv szelleme; Művelt magyar nyelvtan I., 1843] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220108224412/http://real-eod.mtak.hu/2714/1/M%C3%BCvelt_magyar_nyelvtan_elemi_r%C3%A9sze.pdf |date=2022-01-08 }}, by the linguist [[János Fogarasi]], pp. 40–41 [pp. 59–60 in the PDF] ''Ha jelesb magyar költőink hexametereit olvassuk vagy halljuk, oly szabályszerűeknek találjuk a kifejezéseket, a szórendet oly erőltetésnélkülinek, s — a formától s válogatottabb szóktul elvontan — az egészet oly természetes folyamatúnak, mintha csak gondos kötetlen beszédet hallanánk.'' "When we read or hear hexameters by our Hungarian poets of note, we find the expressions so regular, the word order so uncontrived, and – detached from the form and the refined terms – the whole so naturally flowing, that it is as if we were hearing careful colloquial speech." The author then goes on to illustrate his point by quoting [https://mek.oszk.hu/01100/01122/html/cserh.htm Cserhalom] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216105831/http://mek.oszk.hu/01100/01122/html/cserh.htm |date=2022-02-16 }} by [[Mihály Vörösmarty]].</ref> It has been applied to Hungarian since 1541, introduced by the grammarian [[János Sylvester]].<ref>[https://www.arcanum.hu/hu/online-kiadvanyok/Lexikonok-a-pallas-nagy-lexikona-2/h-B866/hexameter-C5FB/ Hexameter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811130502/https://www.arcanum.hu/hu/online-kiadvanyok/Lexikonok-a-pallas-nagy-lexikona-2/h-B866/hexameter-C5FB/ |date=2020-08-11 }} in ''[[A Pallas nagy lexikona|Pallas’ Great Lexicon]].''</ref>

A hexameter can even occur spontaneously. For example, a student may extricate themselves from failing to remember a poem by saying the following, which is a hexameter in Hungarian:

:Itt ela/kadtam, / sajnos  / nem jut e/szembe a / többi.
:"I'm stuck here, unfortunately the rest won't come into my mind."

[[Sándor Weöres]] included an ordinary nameplate text in one of his poems (this time, a [[pentameter]]):<ref>[http://ludens.elte.hu/~tir/vers/avwejs.htm Weöres Sándor: Az éjszaka csodái] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220627180817/http://ludens.elte.hu/~tir/vers/avwejs.htm |date=2022-06-27 }} ("The Miracles of Night")</ref>

:Tóth Gyula / bádogos / és // vízveze/ték-szere/lő.
:"Gyula Tóth tinsmith and plumber"

A label on a bar of chocolate went as follows, another hexameter, noticed by the poet [[Dániel Varró]]:<ref>{{cite web |url = https://168ora.hu/kultura/a-lira-az-aszvarro-daniel-a-koltoi-szerepekrol-10294 |title = A líra az ász: Varró Dániel a költői szerepekről |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006124500/https://168ora.hu/kultura/a-lira-az-aszvarro-daniel-a-koltoi-szerepekrol-10294 |archive-date=6 October 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

:Tejcsoko/ládé / sárgaba/rack- és / kekszdara/bokkal
:"Milk chocolate with apricot and biscuit bits"

Due to this feature, the hexameter has been widely used both in translated (Greek and Roman) and in original Hungarian poetry up to the twentieth century (e.g. by [[Miklós Radnóti]]).<ref>[http://www.magyarulbabelben.net/works/hu-en/Radnóti_Miklós-1909 Radnóti's poems with English translations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419162340/https://www.magyarulbabelben.net/works/hu-en/Radn%c3%b3ti_Mikl%c3%b3s-1909 |date=2023-04-19 }}, see the Fifth, Seventh or Eighth Eclogue, the seventh being the most famous, while the eighth is translated into English in hexameters.</ref>

===In Lithuanian===
''[[The Seasons (poem)|The Seasons]]'' (''Metai'') by [[Kristijonas Donelaitis]] is a famous [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] poem in quantitative dactylic hexameters. Because of the nature of Lithuanian, more than half of the lines of the poem are entirely spondaic save for the mandatory dactyl in the fifth foot.