Should any one seek here for an account of every kind of verse used by
the Latin poets, all we can say is-- we wish he may get it. As it
behoveth no one to be wiser than the law, so it behoveth not us to be
wiser than the Eton Grammar.
The verses which boys are commonly taught to make are hexameters and
pentameters.
An hexameter verse consists of six feet. As the ancient heroes were at
least six feet high, this is probably the reason why it is also called
an _heroic_ verse.
The fifth foot in this kind of verse should be a dactyl, the sixth a
spondee; the other feet may be either dactyls or spondees; as
[O]bstAntI pl{u}v{i}Is vEnIt cUm tEgm{i}n{e} SAmbO:
Sambo came with his Macintosh.