Alcaics  refers to a stanza form named for the Greek poet Alcaeus, and much used by the Latin poet Horace for his odes (see Horatian ode). It is a quantitative form, using shorts and longs rather than stresses and unstressed syllables. The pattern is as follows, with longs ( _ ) , shorts ( u ), or syllables that can be either ( x ).

x _ u _ x _ u u _ u _

x _ u _ x _ u u _ u _

x _ u _ x  _ u _ _

_ u u _ u u _ u _ _

Tennyson aimed at reproducing quantity, using English words:

Milton (Alcaics)
                                         by: Alfred, Lord Tennyson

                           O mighty-mouth'd inventor of harmonies,
                           O skill'd to sing of Time or Eternity,
                               God-gifted organ-voice of England,
                                   Milton, a name to resound for ages;

                           Whose Titan angels, Gabriel, Abdiel,
                           Starr'd from Jehovah's gorgeous armouries,
                               Tower, as the deep-domed empyrean
                                   Rings to the roar of an angel onset--

                           Me rather all that bowery loneliness,
                           The brooks of Eden mazily murmuring,
                               And bloom profuse and cedar arches
                                   Charm, as a wanderer out in ocean,

                           Where some refulgent sunset of India
                           Streams o'er a rich ambrosial ocean isle,
                               And crimson-hued the stately palm-woods
                                   Whisper in odorous heights of even.