PENTAMETER, in ancient poetry, a kind of verse, consisting of five feet, or metres, whence the name. The two first feet may be either dactyls or spondees at pleasure; the third is always a spondee; and the two last anapelles: such is the following verse of Ovid.
1 2 3 4 5
Carminibus vires tempus in omne meis.
A pentameter verse subjoined to an hexameter, constitutes what is called elegiac. See ELEGIAC.