Alexandriner

Alexandriner, German term for the French ‘alexandrin’, a line of verse consisting of 12 syllables (or 13 if the last is unstressed), divided by a caesura after the sixth, and rhyming in pairs. It was introduced into German literature in the 17th c. by Lobwasser, Melissus, and Weckherlin and established by Opitz. Up to the middle of the 18th c. it was the accepted verse form for the drama and the epic, and was also frequently used in other poetic forms. Its use declined in the later 18th c., surviving longest in Austria. In 1831 Goethe revived the alexandrine for satirical and symbolical purposes in Faust Pt. II (Act IV, Des Gegenkaisers Zelt).