An Asclepiad is a line of poetry following a particular metrical pattern. The form is attributed to Asclepiades of Samos

Asclepiades of Samos

Asclepiades of Samos was an ancient Greek epigrammatist and lyric poet. He was a friend of Theocritus, who flourished about 270 BC. He was the earliest and most important of the convivial and erotic epigrammists. Only a few of his compositions are actual inscriptions. Others sing the praises of...

 and is one of the Aeolic metres

Aeolic verse

Aeolic verse is a classification of Ancient Greek lyric poetry referring to the distinct verse forms characteristic of the two great poets of Archaic Lesbos, Sappho and Alcaeus, who composed in their native Aeolic dialect...

.

As with other Aeolic metrical lines, the asclepiad is built around a choriamb

Choriamb

In Greek and Latin poetry, a choriamb is a metron consisting of four syllables in the pattern long-short-short-long , that is, a trochee alternating with an iamb. Choriambs are one of the two basic metra that do not occur in spoken verse, as distinguished from true lyric or sung verse...

. The Asclepiad may be described as a glyconic

Glyconic

Glyconic, , describes a form of meter in classical Greek and Latin poetry. The glyconic line is the most basic form of Aeolic verse, and it is often combined with others....

 that has been expanded with one (Lesser Asclepiad) or two (Greater Asclepiad) further choriambs. The pattern (using "-" for a long syllable, "u" for a short and "x" for an "anceps

Anceps

In Greek and Latin meter, an anceps syllable is a syllable in a metrical line which can be either short or long. An anceps syllable may be called "free" or "irrational" depending on the type of meter being discussed....

" or free syllable) is:

x x - u u - - u u - u - (Lesser Asclepiad)
x x - u u - - u u - - u u - u - (Greater Asclepiad)

West

Martin Litchfield West

Martin Litchfield West is an internationally recognised scholar in classics, classical antiquity and philology...

 (1982) designates the Asclepiad as a "choriambically expanded glyconic" with the notation gl^c (lesser) or gl^2c (greater).

Asclepiads were used in Latin by Horace

Horace

Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...

 in three of his odes: 1.11, 1.18, 4.10, as well as by Catullus

Catullus

Gaius Valerius Catullus was a Latin poet of the Republican period. His surviving works are still read widely, and continue to influence poetry and other forms of art.-Biography:...

 in Poem 30, and Seneca

Seneca the Younger

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...

. Examples in English verse include parts of Sir Philip Sidney

Philip Sidney

Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier and soldier, and is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan Age...

's Arcadia

Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, also known simply as the Arcadia or the Old Arcadia, is a long prose work by Sir Philip Sidney written towards the end of the sixteenth century, and later published in several versions. It is Sidney's most ambitious literary work, by far, and as significant in...

("Here wrong's name is unheard, slander a monster is; / Keep thy sprite from abuse, here no abuse doth haunt. /
What man grafts in a tree dissimulation?") and W. H. Auden

W. H. Auden

Wystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...

's "In Due Season" ("Springtime, Summer and Fall: days to behold a world").