Pentameter.—See Dimeter. As properly used, a line of five feet—dactyls or spondees—divided into two batches of two and a half each. As improperly used, a five-foot iambic line in English.
Pindaric.—Strictly the regular ode (see Strophe) of Greek poetry; but extended by, and still more in imitation of, Cowley to any lyrical composition in irregularly rhymed stanzas of different line-lengths. According to Dryden, the Alexandrine line, frequent in Cowley's odes, was so-called, "but," he most properly adds, "improperly."
Position.—In the classical prosodies a short or common vowel before two consonants (but not every two) was said to be long "by position"; and efforts have been made to determine English quantity in the same way. No rule of the kind can be laid down; doubled or grouped consonants after a vowel usually shortening the pronunciation, and sometimes lengthening the value.
Poulter's Measure.—A term used by Gascoigne, and said to be derived from the practice of poulter[er]s in giving twelve to the dozen in one case and thirteen or fourteen in another. It is applied to the combination of Alexandrine and fourteener which was such a favourite with the earlier Tudor poets, and which broke up into the "Short Measure" of the hymn-books.
Proceleusmatic.—A double pyrrhic, or foot of four short syllables ( ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ). Not needed, if not also impossible, in English.
Pyrrhic.—Foot of two short syllables ( ̆ ̆ ). Very doubtfully found in English; but not impossible.
Quantity.—That which fits a syllable for its place as "long" or "short" in a verse.
Quartet or Quatrain.—A group of four lines usually, indeed with the rarest exceptions, united in themselves, and separated from others, by rhyme.
Quintet.—A similar group of five lines.