Definitions

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  • noun Plural form of alexandrine.

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Examples

  • Eustache or Thomas de Kent is still unpublished; the author imitates the romance in "alexandrines" of Lambert le Tort and Alexandre de Paris, twelfth century, ed. Michelant, Stuttgart, 1846.

    A Literary History of the English People From the Origins to the Renaissance Jean Jules Jusserand

  • We will gladly exchange for a stanza of alexandrines

    Braulio Arenas greenintegerblog 2008

  • Canalis would gladly have brought forth some great political poem, but he was afraid of the French press, whose criticisms are savage upon any writer who takes four alexandrines to express one idea.

    Modeste Mignon 2007

  • Every form of composition must be judged in its own order, and the order in which Voltaire chose to work was the French classic, with its appointed conditions and fixed laws, its three unities, its stately alexandrines, and all the other essentials of that special dramatic form.

    Voltaire 2007

  • When people whose taste has been trained in the traditions of romantic and naturalistic art, or even not trained at all except in indolence and presumption, yawn over French alexandrines, let them remember that Goethe at any rate thought it worth while to translate "Mahomet" and

    Voltaire 2007

  • We do not know whether the Marquise meant alexandrines, or those graceful verses of society of which Voltaire was so incomparable a master.

    Voltaire 2007

  • The art of versifying is, indeed, prodigiously difficult, especially in our language, where alexandrines follow one another two by two; where it is rare to avoid monotony; where it is absolutely necessary to rhyme; where noble and pleasing rhymes are too limited in number; and where a word out of its place, or a harsh syllable, is sufficient to spoil

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • It is said, however, that such quality does not produce acting plays, but only dramatic poems: this is really laughable if we remember first, that the finest actors in the world have been trained in the recitation of these alexandrines, and second, that as large and as delighted an audience used until within some twenty years ago to crowd to a tragedy of Corneille or

    Voltaire 2007

  • We are back to the alexandrines of Racine: Love versus Honor.

    A Man Half Full Mailer, Norman 1998

  • There is generally a tendency to make the line the unit -- but the verse paragraph or stanza effect is also present in nearly fully developed form, as witness the opening lines of the poem -- weak or feminine endings are not frequent, alexandrines very few.

    The Principles of English Versification Paull Franklin Baum

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