ALCAICS, the name of several lyric verses, from Alcaeus of Lesbos, their supposed inventor. They comprise: The Alcaic stanza consists of (I) twice repeated, followed by (3) and then (2), once each. It was a great favourite, not only of its inventor, but of Horace, who made some very slight modifi cations to adapt it to Latin. In modern languages it has been imitated by Tennyson (from whom the above English lines are taken) and occasionally by poets in other languages, but never with much success.
The manner in which the lines should be divided into feet is, in this as in all "Aeolic" metres, a highly controversial point.