Polish alexandrine

Polish alexandrine (in Polish "trzynastozgłoskowiec") is a commonly used type of metrical line in traditional Polish poetry and verse drama. It is similar to the French alexandrine. Each line is composed of thirteen syllables and divided into two half-lines: 7+6. Main stresses are placed on the 6th and 12th syllables. Rhymes are almost always feminine.

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

Moja wdzięczna Orszulo, bodaj ty mnie była
Albo nie umierała lub się nie rodziła!

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. 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:

S’amor non è, che dunque è quel ch’io sento?
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 nie masz miłości, cóż jest, co ja czuję?
Jeśli miłość jest, co to przebóg takowego?
Jeśli dobra, skąd skutku nabywa tak złego?
Jeśli zła, czemu sobie mękę tak smakuję?

Adam Mickiewicz composed his famous Crimean Sonnets in 13-syllable lines:

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