Practice question · Estimate
The hendecasyllable is the standard line of Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Catalan verse. How many syllables does it hold?
Estimate on a scale from 8 syllables (8) to 14 syllables (14).
Hints
- The name contains the number.
- "Hendeca" is Greek for eleven.
Show the answer
11 (answers within ±0.5 count)
Why
Eleven. Its dominance across four literatures is why the sonnet travelled between them so easily, the form arrived with a line length the receiving tradition already used, so only the rhyme scheme had to be naturalised.
Practise Poetic Traditions I: the Medieval and Renaissance Lyric
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Literature I is free to start.
More questions on Poetic Traditions I: the Medieval and Renaissance Lyric
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