1. See also

2. Notes

Polish alexandrine (Polish: trzynastozgłoskowiec) is a common metrical line in Polish poetry. It is similar to the French alexandrine. Each line is composed of thirteen syllables with a caesura after the seventh syllable. The main stresses are placed on the sixth and twelfth syllables. Rhymes are feminine.

 1 2     3   4 5   6 7   1 2   3    4  5 6 o o     o   o o   S x | o o   o    o  S xMoja wdzięczna Orszulo, bodaj ty mnie byłaS=stressed syllable; x=unstressed syllable; o=any syllable.

The Polish alexandrine was introduced in the 15th century. It was borrowed from Latin poetry.^[1] It was widely used by Jan Kochanowski,^[2] the first great Polish poet, as exemplified in the first two lines of his "Lament 13", with a formal paraphrase in English:

Albo nie umierała lub się nie rodziła!}}^[3]

My Ursula, so charming, I brood in my sighing:

Better never born, dearest, than live, so soon dying.}}

The Polish national epic, Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz, is written in this measure.^[4] Polish alexandrines replaced hendecasyllables in sonnets: in the 16th century poets like Sebastian Grabowiecki and Mikołaj Sęp-Szarzyński wrote sonnets using 11-syllable metre, but in the 17th century Daniel Naborowski translated one of Petrarch's sonnets using 13-syllable lines:

Ma s’egli è amor, perdio, che cosa et quale?

Se bona, onde l’effecto aspro mortale?

Se ria, onde sí dolce ogni tormento?}}

Jeśli miłość jest, co to przebóg takowego?

Jeśli dobra, skąd skutku nabywa tak złego?

Jeśli zła, czemu sobie mękę tak smakuję?}}|

attr1=Petrach (endecasillabos)

Adam Mickiewicz composed his famous Crimean Sonnets^[5] in 13-syllable lines:

Wóz nurza się w zieloność i jak łódka brodzi,

Śród fali łąk szumiących, śród kwiatów powodzi,

Omijam koralowe ostrowy burzanu.}}

Across sea-meadows measureless I go,

My wagon sinking under grass so tall

The flowery petals in foam on me fall,

And blossom-isles float by I do not know.|

attr2=Edna Worthley Underwood
(translated into iambic pentameter)}}

The Polish alexandrine was used by many translators (among others, Franciszek Ksawery Dmochowski) as an equivalent of ancient Greek and Roman dactylic hexameter:

As Polish words are longer than English ones, the 13-syllable line is good for translating English iambic pentameter.

Nowadays Polish alexandrine lines are often mixed with hendecasyllable ones in one poem.^[7]

See also

• French alexandrine
• Czech alexandrine

Notes

• Divizia B 1956
• Divizia B 1957-58
• Divizia B 1957–58
• Divizia B 1958-59
• Divizia B 1958–59
• Divizia B 1959-60
• Divizia B 1959–60
• Divizia B 1960-61
• Divizia B 1960–61
• Divizia B 1961-62
• Divizia B 1961–62
• Divizia B 1962-63
• Divizia B 1962–63
• Divizia B 1963-64
• Divizia B 1963–64
• Divizia B 1964-65
• Divizia B 1964–65
• Divizia B 1979-80
• Divizia B 1979–80
• Divizia B 1991-92
• Divizion
• Divizio, Richard
• Diviš, Richard
• Divjaka-Karavasta National Park
• Divjaka Karavasta National Park