In poetry, a hendecasyllable is a line that has eleven syllables. The term can describe different types of poetic meters. One type, called quantitative, was used mainly in classical poetry from Ancient Greece and Latin. Another type, called syllabic or accentual-syllabic, was used in medieval and modern poetry.

Classical

In classical poetry, "hendecasyllable" or "hendecasyllabic" refers to three different types of 11-syllable meters from the Aeolic tradition. These meters were first used in Ancient Greece and later adopted by Roman poets with little change.

Aeolic meters follow a pattern that begins with an Aeolic base (two syllables, either long or short) followed by a choriamb (a group of four syllables: long, short, short, long). The three Aeolic hendecasyllables are:

• Phalaecian hendecasyllable (Latin: hendecasyllabus phalaecius):
• This meter is named after Phalaecus, a Hellenistic poet who used it in short poems. Though he did not create it, earlier poets like Sappho and Anacreon also used it. The Phalaecian meter was popular with Roman poets such as Catullus and Martial. An example from Catullus is the first poem in his collection, translated below:
• "To whom do I give this charming new book, freshly burnished with pumice stone? To Cornelius! You who used to think my trifles were worth something."
• In Catullus’s work, the Aeolic base (the first two syllables) is most common. Occasionally, the base may have a short followed by a long syllable or vice versa. A pause in the line often occurs after the 5th or 6th syllable. Catullus used this meter in 41 poems. In two poems (55 and 58b), he used a variation where the 4th and 5th syllables could sometimes be combined into one long syllable.

• Alcaic hendecasyllable (Latin: hendecasyllabus alcaicus):
• This meter shortens the Aeolic base to a single syllable that can be either long or short. It often appears as the first two lines of an Alcaic stanza.

• Sapphic hendecasyllable (Latin: hendecasyllabus sapphicus):
• Here, the Aeolic base is also shortened. This meter typically appears as the first three lines of a Sapphic stanza. It was also used in stichic verse (short, independent lines) by poets like Seneca and Boethius. Sappho, after whom the Sapphic stanza is named, wrote many such stanzas. An example in Greek, with a translated version, is:
• "He, it seems to me, is completely godlike: Ah, that man who is sitting across from you, leaning in and listening to your sweet voice, charmed by your laughter."

Scholars debate whether poem 58b is a fragment of poem 55 or a separate poem.

Italian

The hendecasyllable (Italian: endecasillabo) is the main meter used in Italian poetry. It has a constant stress on the tenth syllable, so the total number of syllables in a line can change. Usually, a line has eleven syllables if the last word is stressed on its second-to-last syllable. The line also has a stress before the caesura, which occurs on the fourth or sixth syllable. If the stress is on the fourth syllable, the line is called endecasillabo a minore (lesser hendecasyllable), and the first part of the line is similar to a quinario. If the stress is on the sixth syllable, the line is called endecasillabo a maiore (greater hendecasyllable), and the first part of the line is similar to a settenario.

Hendecasyllabic lines often end with feminine rhymes, which help make the line have exactly eleven syllables. However, lines with ten or twelve syllables also appear. Lines with ten or twelve syllables are more common in rhymed poetry, while unrhymed poetry (versi sciolti) usually follows a stricter eleven-syllable pattern. Longer lines can be created by using certain verb forms and pronouns attached to verbs, such as in the example: "Ottima è l'acqua; ma le piante abbeverinosene."

Extra accents beyond the two required ones add rhythm and help express the poem’s themes. A line with accents on even-numbered syllables, like "Al còr gentìl rempàira sèmpre amóre," is called iambic (giambico) and can be either a lesser or greater hendecasyllable. This type of line is simple, common, and musical but can feel repetitive in longer poems. Lesser hendecasyllables often have an accent on the seventh syllable, like in "fàtta di giòco in figùra d'amóre," which is called dactylic (dattilico). This line has a softer rhythm and is well-suited for dialogue. Another type of greater hendecasyllable has an accent on the third syllable, like in "Se Mercé fosse amìca a' miei disìri," and is called anapestic (anapestico). This line creates a sense of speed and movement.

It is not allowed for a lesser hendecasyllable to use a word with stress on its third-to-last syllable (parola sdrucciola) for the mid-line stress. A line like "Più non sfavìllano quegli òcchi néri," which delays the caesura until after the sixth syllable, is not considered a valid hendecasyllable.

Most classical Italian poems are written in hendecasyllables, including works by Dante, Francesco Petrarca, Ludovico Ariosto, and Torquato Tasso. These poems use rhyme systems like terza rima, ottava, sonnet, and canzone. Some forms mix hendecasyllables with shorter lines. From the early 16th century onward, hendecasyllables are often used without strict rhyme patterns, both in poetry and drama. This is called verso sciolto. An early example is Le Api by Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai, written around 1517 and published in 1525. A sample line is:

"Mentr'era per cantare i vostri doni / Con alte rime, o Verginette caste, / Vaghe Angelette delle erbose rive, / Preso dal sonno, in sul spuntar dell'Alba / M'apparve un coro della vostra gente, / E dalla lingua, onde s'accoglie il mele, / Sciolsono in chiara voce este parole: / O spirto amico, che dopo mill'anni, / E cinque cento, rinovar ti piace / E le nostre fatiche, e i nostri studi, / Fuggi le rime, e'l rimbombar sonoro."

This translates to:

"While I was singing your gifts / In lofty rimes, O little vestal virgins, / Sweet little seraphim of grassy margins, / Sleep seized me in the first light of morning, / And I beheld a chorus of your people, / Who, with their tongues that lately sipped at honey, / Buzzed forth in clear voices these words: / 'O friendly soul who, after thousand years / And five hundred, chooses to renew / Our toil and our studies, / Escape rime and its echoing sound.'"

Like other early Italian tragedies, Gian Giorgio Trissino’s Sophonisba (1515) uses blank hendecasyllables. Later examples appear in Giacomo Leopardi’s Canti, where hendecasyllables are mixed with settenari.

Polish

The 11-syllable line, called the hendecasyllable, was widely used in Polish poetry during the 17th and 18th centuries because of strong Italian literary influence. Many Polish poets, including Jan Kochanowski, Piotr Kochanowski (who translated Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso), Sebastian Grabowiecki, Wespazjan Kochowski, and Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski, wrote in this form. Adam Mickiewicz, Poland's greatest Romantic poet, used this measure in his poem Grażyna. The 11-syllable line is often used in translations of English blank verse.

An 11-syllable line typically has 5 syllables followed by 6 syllables, with a pause in the middle. The strongest stresses usually fall on the fourth and tenth syllables, and both halves of the line often end with longer vowel sounds. While the line can sometimes follow a regular pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables (iambic rhythm), this is not common. Instead, stresses vary depending on the words used.

A common form of Polish poetry using the 11-syllable line is the Sapphic stanza, which has four lines with syllable counts of 11, 11, 11, and 5. The 11-syllable line is also often paired with an 8-syllable line in a pattern like 11/8/11/8. Adam Mickiewicz used this structure in his ballads, as seen in this example:

Ktokolwiek będziesz w Nowogródzkiej stronie,
Do Płużyn ciemnego boru
Wjechawszy, pomnij zatrzymać twe konie,
Byś się przypatrzył jezioru.

Visitor passing Novogrudok's courses,
In Płużyn forest's umbration,
Once come, remember to rein in your horses:
View the lake in admiration.

Portuguese

The hendecasyllable (Portuguese: hendecassílabo) is a common meter used in Portuguese poetry. One of the most famous poems written in this meter is Luís de Camões' Lusiads, which begins with these lines:

"As armas, & os barões assinalados, Que da Occidental praya Lusitana, Por mares, nunca de antes navegados, Passaram, ainda alem da Taprobana, Em perigos, & guerras esforçados, Mais do que prometia a força humana. Entre gente remota edificaram Novo Reino, que tanto sublimaram."

"Armes, and the Men above the vulgar File, Who from the Western Lusitanian shore Past ev'n beyond the Trapobanian-Isle, Through Seas which never Ship has sayld before; Who (brave in action, patient in long Toyle, Beyond what strength of humane nature bore) 'Mongst Nations, under other Stars, acquir'd A modern Scepter which to Heaven aspir'd."

In Portuguese, the hendecasyllable meter is sometimes called "decasyllable" (decassílabo), even when the poem uses mostly feminine rhymes, as in the Lusiads. This is because Portuguese poetry rules consider the end of a line to be at the last stressed syllable. Therefore, these lines are classified as decasyllabic according to Portuguese scansion.

Spanish

The hendecasyllable (Spanish: endecasílabo) appears less often in Spanish poetry compared to Italian or Portuguese poetry. However, it is still frequently used in poetic forms similar to those found in Italian poetry, such as sonnets and ottava rima. For example, the Spanish poet Alonso de Ercilla used this structure in his epic poem La Araucana.

Spanish playwrights often pair hendecasyllables with shorter lines, such as heptasyllables. This can be seen in Rosaura’s opening speech from Calderón’s play La vida es sueño:

*Hipogrifo violento,
Que corriste parejas con el viento,
¿Dónde, rayo sin liama,
Pájaro sin matiz, pez sin escama,
Y bruto sin instinto
Natural, al confuso laberinto
Destas desnudas peñas
Te desbocas, arrastras y despeñas?*

*Wild hippogriff swift speeding,
Thou that does run, the wingèd winds exceeding,
Bolt which no flash illumes,
Fish without scales, bird without shifting plumes,
And brute awhile bereft
Of natural instinct, why to this wild cleft,
The labyrinth of naked rocks, dost sweep
Unreined, uncurbed, to plunge thee down the steep?*

English

The word "hendecasyllable" usually describes a line of poetry that imitates the rhythm of Greek or Latin verse, as seen in works by poets like Alfred Tennyson, Swinburne, and Robert Frost ("For Once, Then, Something"). More recently, American poets Annie Finch ("Lucid Waking") and Patricia Smith ("The Reemergence of the Noose") have also used this form. In English, where the length of sounds is not clearly marked, poets often use stressed syllables to represent long sounds and unstressed syllables to represent short sounds. However, Tennyson tried to keep the original timing of the meter in his Alcaic stanzas, which include Alcaic hendecasyllables. The first two lines of these stanzas are examples:

— Tennyson: "Milton," lines 1–4

Sometimes, "hendecasyllable" refers to a line of iambic pentameter with an extra, longer ending, such as the first line of John Keats's Endymion: "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever."