Alcaics

[Tinker]

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Greek Verse   

Alcaics "gives an impression of wonderful vigour and spontaneity". The 1911 Edition Encyclopedia. The stanzaic form is attributed to the poet Alceaus 6th century BC and is an Aeolic classic meter. The elements of the Alcaics stanzaic form are:

1. stanzaic, any number of quatrains may be written.
2. metric, quantitative verse. The first 3 lines are 5 metric feet and the last line, 4 metric feet with a specific combination of trochees and dactyls. There are variations on the rhythm of the Alcaics quatrain but the following (one source refers to it as the dactyl Alcaic quatrain) seems to me the most common as demonstrated in Alfred Lord Tennyson's Milton. 
   
   (acephalous refers to the missing 1st syllable of an iambic foot)
   L1 & L2 acephalous iamb, 2 trochees and 2 dactyls;
   L3 acephalous iamb, 4 trochees;
   L4 2 dactyls 2 trochees in that order
   
   Quantitative Verse
   L-Ls-Ls-Lss-Lss
   L-Ls-Ls-Lss-Lss
   L-Ls-Ls-Ls-Ls
   Lss-Lss-Ls-Ls
   
   Milton Part I by Alfred Lord Tennyson 1891
   
   O mighty-mouth'd inventor of harmonies,
   O skill'd to sing of Time or Eternity,
   God-gifted organ-voice of England,
   Milton, a name to resound for ages;
   Whose Titan angels, Gabriel, Abdiel,
   Starr'd from Jehovah's gorgeous armories,
   Tower, as the deep-domed empyrean
   Rings to the roar of an angel onset--
   
   Me rather all that bowery loneliness,
   The brooks of Eden mazily murmuring,
   And bloom profuse and cedar arches
   Charm, as a wanderer out in ocean,
   
   Where some refulgent sunset of India
   Streams o'er a rich ambrosial ocean isle,
   And crimson-hued the stately palm-woods
   Whisper in odorous heights of even.