To those of us whose main language is one of the Romance Languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian), what do you think of the 12 syllable metrical verse, usually called the Alexandrine Verse?
I tended to use the ten-syllable line verse in my poetry and drama (the Decasyllable), but I will change to the 12 syllable line, because it offers more space and allows one to express generally the same as a line of iambic pentameter.
Since English is mostly monosyllabic, the metrical poetry of the English speaking poets tends to be more complex than ours – or at least more detailed and flexible -, mostly because of the space they have to work with. One need but to compare single lines from Dante and Camões and Ariosto to those of Shakespeare to see what I am talking about.
Now, the Alexandrine is quite well-respected in France, but not so much in Portugal, Spain and Brazil. I was willing to contradict the tradition of my country and abandon the 10-syllable verse for the Alexandrine.
So I would like to ask what are your experiences with this particular verse?