HEMISTICH

(Gr. n/u.ia-Tixto" i from r,/u.f, half, and e-rtxos, verse.) In Poetry, half a verse. The unfinished verses in Virgil's Mneid, concerning which it is not known whether they were purposely left in that state, or are owing to the incompletene of the poem, are usually called hemistichs. The alexandrine, or French hem i-verse, requires a regular pause at the end of the first hemistich. [s. 562]