Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HEX-AM'E-TER, n. [Gr. εξ, six, and μετρον, measure.]

In ancient poetry, a verse of six feet, the first four of which may be either dactyls or spondees, the fifth must regularly be a dactyl, and the sixth always a spondee. In this species of verse are composed the Iliad of Homer and the Æneid of Virgil. Diva so|lo fix|os ocu|los a|versa ten|ebat. Virgil.