# Decasyllable

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{{Short description|Poetic verse with ten syllables per line}}
{{refimprove|date=June 2007}}
'''Decasyllable''' ([Italian](/source/Italian_language): ''decasillabo'', [French](/source/French_language): ''décasyllabe'', [Serbian](/source/Serbian_language): ''десетерац'', ''deseterac'')  is a [poetic](/source/Poetry)  [meter](/source/Meter_(poetry)) of ten [syllable](/source/syllable)s used in poetic traditions of [syllabic verse](/source/syllabic_verse).  In languages with a [stress accent](/source/stress_accent) ([accentual verse](/source/accentual_verse)), it is the equivalent of  [pentameter](/source/pentameter) with [iambs](/source/Iamb_(foot)) or [trochee](/source/trochee)s (particularly [iambic pentameter](/source/iambic_pentameter)).

Medieval French heroic [epic](/source/Epic_poetry)s (the ''[chansons de geste](/source/chansons_de_geste)'') were most often composed in 10 syllable verses (from which, the decasyllable was termed "heroic verse"), generally with a regular [caesura](/source/caesura) after the fourth syllable. (The medieval French [romance](/source/romance_(heroic_literature)) (''roman'') was, however, most often written in 8 syllable (or ''octosyllable'') verse.)  

Use of the 10 syllable line in French poetry was eclipsed by the 12 syllable [alexandrine](/source/French_Alexandrine) line, particularly after the 16th century. [Paul Valéry](/source/Paul_Val%C3%A9ry)'s great poem "The Graveyard by the Sea" (Le Cimetière marin) is, however, written in decasyllables.

Similarly, [South Slavic](/source/South_Slavic_languages) and in particular [Serbian epic poetry](/source/Serbian_epic_poetry) sung with the accompaniment of the [gusle](/source/Gusle) is traditionally sung in the decasyllabic verse.<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon">{{cite book |author= Dragiša Živković |editor = Živan Milisavac |date=1971 |title=Jugoslovenski književni leksikon |trans-title=Yugoslav Literary Lexicon |publisher=[Matica srpska](/source/Matica_srpska) |language=sh |location= [Novi Sad](/source/Novi_Sad) ([SAP Vojvodina](/source/Socialist_Autonomous_Province_of_Vojvodina), [SR Serbia](/source/Socialist_Republic_of_Serbia)) |page=92 }}</ref>

In 19th-century Italian [opera](/source/opera), this form was often employed in the [libretto](/source/libretto).  Noting its use in the operas of [Giuseppe Verdi](/source/Giuseppe_Verdi), musicologist [Philip Gossett](/source/Philip_Gossett) describes the composer's request to the librettist for his opera ''[Macbeth](/source/Macbeth_(Verdi))'', [Francesco Maria Piave](/source/Francesco_Maria_Piave), as follows: "I'd like to do a chorus as important as the one in ''[Nabucco](/source/Nabucco)'', but I wouldn't want it to have the same rhythm, and that's why I ask you for ottonari" [8 syllables; and then Gossett continues] "Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate" from ''Nabucco'', "O Signore del tetto natio" from ''[I Lombardi](/source/I_Lombardi)'', and "Si ridesti il Leon di Castiglia" from ''[Ernani](/source/Ernani)'' all employ the poetic meter of decasillabi.<ref>Gossett, p. 286</ref>

[Geoffrey Chaucer](/source/Geoffrey_Chaucer), author of ''[The Canterbury Tales](/source/The_Canterbury_Tales)'', utilized this poetic form. Chaucer<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/prpoetry/decasyllable/0|title=Decasyllable |publisher=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics |website=credoreference.com|language=en|access-date=2018-01-15}}</ref> evolved this meter into [iambs](/source/Iambic_pentameter), or the alternating pattern of five stressed and unstressed syllables made famous by Shakespeare. Because Chaucer's [Middle English](/source/Middle_English) included many unstressed vowels at the end of words which later became silent, his poetry includes a greater number of [hendecasyllables](/source/hendecasyllable) than that of [Modern English](/source/Modern_English) poets.

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{reflist}}
'''Sources'''
*[Gossett, Philip](/source/Philip_Gossett),  ''Divas and Scholar: Performing Italian Opera'',  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008  {{ISBN|0-226-30482-5}}

==See also==
* [Meter (poetry)](/source/Meter_(poetry))
* [Hexasyllable](/source/Hexasyllable), the six-syllable line
* [Octosyllable](/source/Octosyllable), the eight-syllable line
* [Hendecasyllable](/source/Hendecasyllable), the eleven-syllable line
* [Dodecasyllable](/source/Dodecasyllable), the twelve-syllable line

Category:Types of verses

{{poetry-stub}}

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Decasyllable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decasyllable) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decasyllable?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.