Hendecasyllable¶
hendecasyllable · form · validated
A line of exactly eleven syllables, used as the governing measure of a poem.
Provenance¶
- Source: Traditional; classical Latin and Italian prosody
- Attribution:
traditional— classical or folk; no single origin to name - Checkability:
self— decidable from the text and its parameters alone - Attested:
codified— formulated as a rule by a tradition rather than declared by an author
Details¶
- Kind: restrictive
- Languages: en
- Requires:
tokens,syllables.heuristic - Deterministic: yes
- In other languages: Elfsilbler (de), Hendécasyllabe (fr)
Prompt hint¶
Write every line to exactly eleven syllables.
Examples¶
eleven-syllables¶
en — this text satisfies the procedure.
the cat sat on the mat and thought of the mice
Source: constructed example; the measure is classical
too-short¶
en — this text does not satisfy the procedure.
the cat sat
Source: constructed counterexample
elf-silben¶
de — this text satisfies the procedure.
der Abend kommt und bringt uns die Stille mit
Source: constructed example
onze-syllabes¶
fr — this text satisfies the procedure.
Le vent se lève et la nuit tombe sur nous
Source: constructed example
trop-court¶
fr — this text does not satisfy the procedure.
Le vent se lève
Source: constructed counterexample
verlaine-crimen-amoris-strophe1¶
fr — this text satisfies the procedure.
Dans un palais, soie et or, dans Ecbatane,
De beaux démons, des satans adolescents,
Au son d'une musique mahométane,
Font litière aux Sept Péchés de leurs cinq sens.
Source: Paul Verlaine, "Crimen amoris", Jadis et naguère (1884), first quatrain. French has no fixed-form classical hendecasyllable — the 11-syllable line is a marginal 19th-century experiment (Verlaine, Rimbaud) — so this is the honest representative rather than a Renaissance one.