a form of verse adapted to the treatment of heroic or exalted themes: in classical poetry, dactylic hexameter; in English and German, iambic pentameter; and in French, the Alexandrine. An example of heroic verse is Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring /Of woes unnumbered, heavenly goddess, sing! |
| heroic verse n. One of several verse forms traditionally used in epic and dramatic poetry, especially: a. The dactylic hexameter in Greek and Latin. |
heroic verse
the verse form in which the heroic poetry of a particular language is, or according to critical opinion should be, composed. In classical poetry this was dactylic hexameter, in French the alexandrine, in Italian the hendecasyllabic line, and in English iambic pentameter.
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