A hexameter consisting of five dactyls and either a spondee or trochee, in which any of the first four dactyls, and sometimes the fifth, may be replaced by a spondee.
〔诗韵〕扬抑抑格六韵步诗
Example sentencesExamples
The twenty four books of dactylic hexameter we now know as the Odyssey have been transmitted with various textual variation since about 300 B.C.E.
His Metamorphoses were written in epic meter of dactylic hexameters.
Several English poets have attempted extended composition in hexameters, the dactylic hexameter having been the epic metre of Homer.
Thus a pattern consisting of five iambs would be an iambic pentameter; a pattern consisting of six dactyls would be a dactylic hexameter; and so on.
In twenty-four books of dactylic hexameter verse, the Iliad narrates the events of the last year of the Trojan War.