01546--Alcaics

Alcaics is a Greek verse form using a four-line stanza in which the first two lines have eleven syllables each, the third nine, and the fourth ten. The metre, predominantly Dactylic, was used frequently by the Roman poet Horace, and later by some Italian and German poets, but its quantitative basis makes it difficult to adapt into English—although Tennyson and Clough attempted English Alcaics, and Peter Reading has experimented with the form in Ukelele Music (1985) and other works.