Llewelyn Morgan is University Lecturer in Classical Languages and Literature, Oxford University and a Fellow of Brasenose College

• Introduction: the iconography of metre


• 1: The hendecasyllable: an abbreviated history


• 2: Iambics: the short and the long of it


• 3: `Narrower circuits': the sapphic stanza


• 4: The dactylic hexameter and its detractors


• Conclusion

An accessible account of some of the most common metres in Roman poetry, explaining how the poets can exploit them to support, supplement, or drive the meaning of the poems they carry. The study brings new insight to a range of poems, from the works of Catullus and Horace to those of Martial, Statius, and Lucilius.