But the beauty of the descriptions in Evangeline and the pathos-somewhat too drawn out-of the story made it dear to a multitude of readers who cared nothing about the technical disputes of Poe and other critics as to whether or not Longfellow's lines were sufficiently "spondaic" to truthfully represent the quantitative hexameters of Homer and Vergil.
"Brief History of English and American Literature"
Henry A. Beers
Observe the almost completely spondaic line, indicating deliberation, patient waiting, or intense, pent-up feeling held in poise: "Those deep dark eyes where pride demurs," and then the short syllables and lyric effect in the next line.
"Browning and the Dramatic Monologue"
S. S. Curry
Lucretius and Catullus were fond of placing a spondaic word in the fourth foot of the hexameter; in the Augustan age practice altered, and the pattern was generally avoided; compare Aen I 1 'Arma uirumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris'.
"The Last Poems of Ovid"
Ovid