Editing Hendecasyllable (section)

==Italian==
The hendecasyllable ({{langx|it|endecasillabo}}) is the principal metre in [[Italian poetry]]. Its defining feature is a constant stress on the tenth syllable, so that the number of syllables in the verse may vary, equaling eleven in the usual case where the final word is stressed on the penultimate syllable.  The verse also has a stress preceding the [[caesura]], on either the fourth or sixth syllable. The first case is called ''endecasillabo a minore'', or lesser hendecasyllable, and has the first [[hemistich]] equivalent to a ''[[quinario]]''; the second is called ''endecasillabo a maiore'', or greater hendecasyllable, and has a ''[[settenario]]'' as the first hemistich.<ref name=trecc>Claudio Ciociola (2010) [http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/endecasillabo_(Enciclopedia-dell'Italiano)/ "Endecasillabo"], ''Enciclopedia dell'Italiano'' (in Italian). Accessed March 2013.</ref>

There is a strong tendency for hendecasyllabic lines to end with feminine rhymes (causing the total number of syllables to be eleven, hence the name), but ten-syllable lines (''"Ciò che 'n grembo a Benaco star non può"'') and twelve-syllable lines (''"Ergasto mio, perché solingo e tacito"'') are encountered as well. Lines of ten or twelve syllables are more common in rhymed verse; ''[[Verso sciolto|versi sciolti]]'', which rely more heavily on a pleasant rhythm for effect, tend toward a stricter eleven-syllable format. As a novelty, lines longer than twelve syllables can be created by the use of certain verb forms and affixed enclitic pronouns (''"Ottima è l'acqua; ma le piante abbeverinosene."'').

Additional accents beyond the two mandatory ones provide rhythmic variation and allow the poet to express thematic effects. A line in which accents fall consistently on even-numbered syllables (''"Al còr gentìl rempàira sèmpre amóre"'') is called iambic (''giambico'') and may be a greater or lesser hendecasyllable. This line is the simplest, commonest and most musical but may become repetitive, especially in longer works. Lesser hendecasyllables often have an accent on the seventh syllable (''"fàtta di giòco in figùra d'amóre"''). Such a line is called dactylic (''dattilico'') and its less pronounced rhythm is considered particularly appropriate for representing dialogue. Another kind of greater hendecasyllable has an accent on the third syllable (''"Se Mercé fosse amìca a' miei disìri"'') and is known as [[Anapaest|anapestic]] (''anapestico''). This sort of line has a [[crescendo]] effect and gives the poem a sense of speed and fluidity.

It is considered improper for the lesser hendecasyllable to use a word accented on its antepenultimate syllable (''parola sdrucciola'') for its 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 composed in hendecasyllables, including the major works of [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]], [[Francesco Petrarca]], [[Ludovico Ariosto]], and [[Torquato Tasso]]. The rhyme systems used include [[terza rima]], [[ottava rima|ottava]], [[sonnet]] and [[canzone]], and some verse forms use a mixture of hendecasyllables and shorter lines. From the early 16th century onward, hendecasyllables are often used without a strict system, with few or no rhymes, both in poetry and in drama. This is known as ''verso sciolto''. An early example is ''Le Api'' ("the bees") by [[Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai]], written around 1517 and published in 1525 (with formal equivalent paraphrase which mirrors the original's syllabic counts, varied caesurae, and line- and hemistich-final stress profiles):
{{Verse translation|lang=it|
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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Alamanni |first1=Luigi |last2=Rucellai |first2=Giovanni |editor1-last=Bianchini |editor1-first=Giuseppe Maria |editor2-last=Titi |editor2-first=Roberto |title=La Coltivazione di Luigi Alamanni e Le Api di Giovanni Rucellai |date=1804 |publisher=Società Tipografica de'Classici Italiani |location=Milan |pages=239–240 |url=https://archive.org/details/lacoltivazionedi00alam/page/239}}</ref>|attr1=Rucellai: ''Le Api'', lines 1-11|attr2=adapted from [[Leigh Hunt]]'s blank verse translation<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hunt |first=Leigh |title=A Jar of Honey from Mount Hybla [No. XI] |journal=Ainsworth's Magazine |date=October 1844 |volume=6 |pages=390–395 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_ainsworths-magazine_1844-10_6/page/390 |publisher=Open Court Publishing Co |language=English}}</ref>|
While your delightful gifts {{!}} I aimed at singing
In lofty rime {{!}} O little vestal virgins,
Sweet little seraphim {{!}} of grassy margins,
Sleep ravished me {{!}} in the first light of morning,
And I beheld a chorus {{!}} of your people,
Who, with their tongues {{!}} which lately sipped at honey,
Buzzed forth in the clear air {{!}} this earnest message:
"O friendly soul who {{!}} (after thousand summers
And more five hundred) {{!}} beguiles us with singing
Our industrious toil {{!}} our balmy study…
Abandon rime {{!}} and its rebounding echo!"}}

Like other early Italian-language [[Tragedy|tragedies]], the ''Sophonisba'' of [[Gian Giorgio Trissino]] (1515) is in blank hendecasyllables. Later examples can be found in the ''Canti'' of [[Giacomo Leopardi]], where hendecasyllables are alternated with ''settenari''.