Dactylic Hexameter Defined

Poem 64 is composed in dactylic hexameter, the same meter used in

Latin for Vergil’s Aeneid and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and in Greek for

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.

There are six feet (“hex” is Greek for “six”) in a line or verse of dactylic

hexameter poetry. (A foot is the smallest metrical unit of verse with a

given sequence and number of short and long syllables.) The first five

feet are either dactyls (— U U) or spondees (— —) or any combination

of these (i.e., the fi rst foot could be a dactyl, the second a spondee etc.).

A dactyl is one long syllable followed by two short syllables. A spondee

is two long syllables. The sixth foot is treated as a spondee (— —), but

the second syllable of the spondee is actually anceps (— X). The fifth

foot is usually a dactyl.

This is the metrical pattern of the line:

UU UU UU UU UU

— — / — — / — — / — — / — — / — X

A caesura (//) is a pause or break between words within a foot. The

major pause in the line, called the principal caesura, usually occurs

after the first syllable of the third foot or aft er the fi rst syllable of the

fourth foot.

Poem 64, line 50

haec vestis priscīs hominum variāta figūrīs

— —/— — /— U U /— UU/—U U/—X

Catullus Poems in Dactylic Hexameter