Czech alexandrine (in Czech ''český alexandrín'') is a verse form found in Czech poetry of the 20th century. It is a metre based on French

alexandrine Alexandrine is a name used for several distinct types of verse line with related metrical structures, most of which are ultimately derived from the classical French alexandrine. The line's name derives from its use in the Medieval French '' Ro ...

. The most important features of the pattern are number of syllables (twelve or thirteen) and a caesura after the sixth syllable. It is an unusual metre, exhibiting characteristics of both syllabic and syllabotonic ( accentual-syllabic) metre. Thus it occupies a transitional position between syllabic and accentual patterns of European versification. It stands out from the background of modern Czech versification, which is modeled chiefly after German practice. The Czech alexandrine is also metrically ambiguous because of its accentuation, which can reflect the rhythms of iambic hexameter, dactylic tetrameter, and combinations thereof. Compared with iambic hexameter and dactylic tetrameter, the Czech alexandrine preserves ''all'' constants between the two, and allows the rhythms of ''either'' to emerge: iambic hexameter: s S s S s S , s S s S s S (s) dactylic tetrameter: S s s S s s , S s s S s s (s) Czech alexandrine: o o s S s o , o o s S s o (s) S=stressed syllable; s=unstressed syllable; o=either. The Czech alexandrine allows these two rhythms run parallel to each other; sometimes the first is stronger, other times the second. In

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

the first syllable of every lexical word or prepositional phrase is always stressed, so rhythmical units are: s, S, Ss, Sss, Ssss. A great advantage of the Czech alexandrine is that it can be built of any words (or phrases). A half-line can be composed of 1-syllable words (stressed or unstressed), 2-syllable words, 3-syllable words, and 4-syllable words. Possible combinations in the first half-line (with , separating words) include: s, Ss, Ss, S, s, Ss, Sss, Sss, Ss, S, Sss, Sss — for the second half-line: s, Ss, Ss, S, s, Ss, Sss, Sss, Ss, S, Sss, Sss, s, Ss, Ss, Ss, Sss, SsSs, s, Ss, Ssss, Sss, Ssss. Czech poets usually use both masculine and feminine alexandrine lines, but sometimes they choose to apply only one kind. The first poet to use the Czech alexandrine (in his 1836 poem "

Máj ''Máj'' (Czech language, Czech for the month ''May''; ; usually ''květen'') is a Romantic poetry, romantic poem by Karel Hynek Mácha in four cantos. It was fiercely criticized when first published, but since then has gained the status of one o ...

") was

Karel Hynek Mácha Karel Hynek Mácha () (16 November 1810 – 5 November 1836) was a Czechs, Czech Romanticism, romantic poet. His poem ''Máj'' is among the most important poems in the history of Czech literature. Biography Mácha was born on 16 November 1810 ...

, considered the greatest Czech poet. Although the discussed metre was theoretically fully iambic, he inserted many trisyllabic words into his lines: S s s S s s , S s s S s S V jezeru zeleném bílý je ptáků sbor, s S s S s S , s S s S s s s a lehkých člůnků běh i rychlé veslování The variation in rhythms can be heard in a formally equivalent paraphrase: "''Hrál kdosi na hoboj''" ("Somebody played oboe") by Karel Hlaváček is a short poem in Czech alexandrines: Many poets used the Czech alexandrine in the 20th century, both in original works and in translations. Among them there were

Vítězslav Nezval Vítězslav Nezval (; 26 May 1900 – 6 April 1958) was a Czechs, Czech poet, writer and translator. He was one of the most prolific avant-garde Czech writers in the first half of the 20th century and a co-founder of the Surrealism, Surrealist ...

Jiří Orten Jiří Orten (born Jiří Ohrenstein; 30 August 1919 in Kutná Hora – 1 September 1941 in Prague) was a Czech poet. His work was influenced by surrealism and folklore. Life Orten was born in Kutná Hora as Jiří Ohrenstein. His first book ...

Ivan Blatný Ivan Blatný (; 21 December 1919 in Brno, Czechoslovakia – 5 August 1990 in Colchester, United Kingdom) was a Czech poet and a member of '' Skupina 42 (Group 42). Life Blatný, the son of the writer Lev Blatný, was a member of the '' Skupina ...

Vladimír Holan Vladimír Holan (; September 16, 1905 – March 31, 1980) was a Czechoslovak poet famous for employing obscure language, dark topics and pessimistic views in his poems. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in the late 1960s. Life Holan was bor ...

and Oldřich Vyhlídal. The caesura formula is a good base for enjambment. Sometimes a sentence runs from caesura to next caesura, as in "The Seventh Elegy" by Jiří Orten: Jiří Orten, "Sedmá elegie", lines 1-7.

See also

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Further reading