Que en | la | bo|ca, y | só|lo | u|no.
Gen|te en | es|te | mon|te | an|da...
Ya | que | de | tu | vis|ta | hu|ye.
(Calderón)
Gi|gan|te | o|la | que el | vien|to.. .20
Footnote 20: (return) Synalepha is usually to be avoided when it would bring togethertwo stressed syllables as in gigante ola, querido hijo, etc.
lvi
But synalepha is possible (especially of de o-):
To|do e|le|va|ba | mi á|ni|mo in|tran|qui|lo.
Yo | le | da|ré|; mas | no en | el | ar|pa | de o|ro...
And synalepha is the rule, if stress on the initial syllableis weak:
Á o|tra per|so|na en | Ma|drid.
To|da, to|da e|res | per|fec|ta.
If the vowels are the same, they usually combine into one:
Del | sol | en | la al|ta | cum|bre
Tem|blar | en | tor|no | de él|: un | ar|co in|men|so...
(5) FINAL SYLLABLES
In estimating the number of syllables in a Spanish verse-lineone final unstressed syllable after the last stressedsyllable is counted whether it be present or not; or, if therebe two unstressed syllables at the end of the line, only oneis counted.21 Thus the following are considered 8-syllablelines although, in fact, one line has nine syllables andanother has only seven: La | sal|pi|ca | con | es|com|bros
De | cas|ti|llos | y | de al|cá|za|res...
Pa|ra | vol|ver | á | bro|tar...
Footnote 21: (return) In Spanish, a word stressed on the final syllable is called agudo; a word with one syllable after the stress is called grave or llano; one with two syllables after the stress, esdrújulo: farol, pluma,pájaro.
lvii
This system of counting syllables obtains in Spanish becausethere is one and only one unstressed syllable at the end of mostverse-lines. It would, perhaps, be more logical to stop the countwith the last stressed syllable, as the French do. For instance,a Spanish 11-syllable line would be called a "feminine" 10-syllableline by the French; but the French language has only onevowel ( e) that may occur in a final unstressed syllable, while inSpanish there are several ( a, e, o, rarely i, u).
RIME
Spanish poetry may be in rimed verse or in blank verse.(1) Rimed verse may have "consonance,"
in which thereis rime of the last stressed vowel and of any consonants andvowels that may follow in the line, as in:
En las presas
Yo divido
Lo cogido
Por igual:
Sólo quiero
Por riqueza
La belleza
Sin rival.
Madre mía, yo soy niña;
No se enfade, no me riña,
Si fiada en su prudencia
Desahogo mi conciencia,
¡Cuán solitaria la nación que un día
Poblara inmensa gente!
¡La nación cuyo imperio se extendía
Del ocaso al oriente!
lviii
¡Oh tú, que duermes en casto lecho,
De sinsabores ajeno el pecho,
Y á los encantos de la hermosura
Unes las gracias del corazón,
Deja el descanso, doncella pura,
Y oye los ecos de mi canción!
In a diphthong consisting of a strong and a weakvowel the weak vowel may be disregarded in rime. Cf.above: prudencia, conciencia; corazón, canción; igual, rival.
(2) Or rimed verse may have "assonance," in whichthere is rime of the last accented vowel and of any finalvowel that may follow in the line, but not of consonants.22
Footnote 22: (return)
Assonance is rare in popular English verse, but it occurs in somehousehold rimes; e. g.: Little Tommy Tucker,
He cried for his supper.
What shall little Tommy Tucker have for his supper?
Black-eyed beans and bread and butter.
Here the assonance is ú-er (final unstressed -er in standard present-dayEnglish represents vocalic r).
Assonance of alternate lines is the usual rime of the romances, as in: Cabellos de mi cabeza
lléganme al corvejón;
los cabellos de mi barba
por manteles tengo yo:
las uñas de las mis manos
por cuchillo tajador.
Here the assonance is o.
lix
¡Abenámar, Abenámar,
moro de la morería,
el día que tú naciste
grandes señales había!
Estaba la mar en calma,
la luna estaba crecida:
moro que en tal signo nace,
no debe decir mentira.
Here the assonance is í-a.23
Footnote 23: (return) The romances viejos were originally in lines of approximatelysixteen syllables, and every line then had assonance.
Del salón en el ángulo obscuro,
De su dueño tal vez olvidada,
Silenciosa y cubierta de polvo
Veíase el arpa.
¡Cuánta nota dormía en sus cuerdas,
Como el pájaro duerme en las ramas,
Esperando la mano de nieve
Qué sabe arrancarlas!
Here the assonance is á-a.
The following rules for assonance should be noted:
(a) In modern Spanish a word stressed on the finalsyllable may not assonate with one stressed on a syllablepreceding the final.24
Footnote 24: (return) In the old romances and in the medieval epic, á could assonate with á-a. In singing these old verses every line was probably made to endin an unstressed vowel by adding paragogic e to a final stressed syllable.Thus, son was sung as sone, dar as dare, temí as temíe, etc. Cf. Men. Pel., Ant. V, 65; XI, 86, 92; and Men. Pid., Cantar de mío Cid, I, 65 f.
(b) A word stressed on the penult may assonate with one lxstressed on the antepenult. Vowels between the stressedsyllable and the final syllable are disregarded, as in cruza,cúpula (ú-a), bañe, márgenes, árabes (á-e).
(c) In stressed diphthongs and triphthongs only thevowels receiving the stress assonate, as in vale, aire (á-e),cabellos, suelo (é-o), envolviendo, aposento (é-o), guardias,alta (á-a), pleito, siento (é-o), mucho, triunfo (ú-o).
(d) In unstressed diphthongs and triphthongs only thestrong vowels assonate, as in turba, lluvia (ú-a), licencia,quisierais (é-a), pido, continuo (í-o). Similarly, e or o,before another strong vowel, is disregarded in an unstresseddiphthong, as in modo, erróneo (ó-o), crece, héroe (é-e).
(e) In final unstressed syllables, i and u (not in diphthongs)assonate with e and o, respectively, as in verde,débil (é-e), amante, fácil (á-e), líquido, espíritu (í-o).
(3) In Spanish blank verse ( versos sueltos, libres, blancos)there is usually no rime; or if there be rime it is merelyincidental. Blank verse usually consists of 11-syllable lines.
¡Oh! ¡cuánto rostro veo, á mi censura,
De palidez y de rubor cubierto!
Ánimo, amigos, nadie tema, nadie,
Su punzante aguijón; que yo persigo
En mi sátira el vicio, no al vicioso,
Blank verse is little used in Spanish. It occurs chieflyin serious satirical or philosophical poems.
But separate versos sueltos are introduced into some varieties of compositions,such as the romance, seguidilla, silva, etc.25
Footnote 25: (return) The versos sueltos are, with regard to the absence of rime, in imitationof classic Greek and Latin verse. They came into Spain by way ofItaly during the Renaissance movement. Abjured by the romanticists,they were restored to favor by Núñez de Arce.
lxi
VERSE-MEASURES
A. VERSE WITH BINARY MOVEMENT26
Footnote 26: (return) The term "binary" is used here to distinguish ordinary Spanishverse from that with regular ternary movement. Cf. p. lxx.
In modern Spanish this verse is commonly found in linesof seven, eight or eleven syllables. It may occur inlines of any length; but in lines of five or six syllablesthe binary and ternary movements are generallymingled. In Old Spanish binary lines of approximately8+8 and 7+7
syllables were common, and lines of6+6, or of nine, syllables were then, as now, alsooccasionally used.27
Footnote 27: (return) Verses of three or four syllables are best treated as half-lines, withinner rime ( versos leonínos).
The most popular measure, and the one of most importancein the history of Spanish verse, is the 8+8-syllable lineof the old romances, which was later divided into two8-syllable lines, and became the most common measure inthe drama and in popular songs. This line usually has onlyone rhythmic accent, which falls on the seventh syllable.28
Footnote 28: (return) By "rhythmic accent" is meant the musical accent on the laststressed syllable of a phrase and not syllabic stresses that may occurwithin a phrase.
Mis arreos son las armas,
mi descanso el pelear,
mi cama las duras peñas,
mi dormir siempre velar
lxii
Rarely 8-syllable lines are written with a fixed accent onthe third syllable (cf. p. 51, l. 10 f.). 29
There is then sometimes pie quebrado in alternate lines, as in:
Hijo mío mucho amado,
Para mientes;
No contrastes á las gentes
Mal su grado.
Ama: é serás amado;
Y podrás
Hazer lo que no harás
Desamado.30
Footnote 29: (return) They are less common in Spanish than in Italian: Sai tu dirme, o fanciullino,
In qual pasco gita sia
La vezzosa Egeria mia
Ch'io pur cerco dal mattino?
(Paolo A. Rolli)
Footnote 30: (return) Note the example of hiatus in this older Spanish.
Next to the popular 8-syllable line the most importantmeasure in modern Spanish verse is that of eleven syllables,with binary movement, which came to Spain from Italy inthe fifteenth century, and was generally accepted by thewriters of the Siglo de Oro. This 11-syllable line, thoughof foreign origin, has held the boards as the chief eruditemeasure in Spanish verse for four centuries, and taken allin all it is the noblest metrical form for serious poems inmodern Spanish.
A striking peculiarity of the line is itsflexibility. It is not divided into hemistichs as were itspredecessors, the 14-syllable Alexandrine and the 12-syllable arte mayor verse; but it consists of two phrases and theposition of the inner rhythmic accent is usually variable.
lxiii
A well constructed line of this type has a rhythmic accenton the sixth syllable, or a rhythmic accent on the fourthsyllable (usually with syllabic stress on the eighth), besidethe necessary accent in the tenth position. Generally theinner accent falls on the sixth syllable approximately twiceas often as on the fourth.
Y con diversas flòres va esparcièndo... (León)
Y para envejecèrse florecièron... (Calderón)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cuna y sepùlcro en un botón hallàron... (Calderón)
Se mira al mùndo á nuestros pies tendìdo... (Zorrilla)
Logically, the close of the first phrase should coincidewith the end of the word that receives the inner rhythmicaccent, and this is usually so, as in:
¿Qué tengo yò, | que mi amistad procùras?... (Lope)
Son la verdad y Diòs, | Dios verdadèro... (Quevedo)
But in some lines the rhetorical and the rhythmic accentsdo not coincide, as in:
... pero huyóse
El pudor á vivìr en las cabànas... (Jovellanos)
Del plectro sabiamènte meneàdo... (León)
Que á mi puerta, cubièrto de rocìo... (Lope)
The 11-syllable line may be used alone. Cf. the sonnetsof Lope de Vega (p. 14) and Calderón (p.
18), the Epístolasatírica of Quevedo (p. 15), the blank verse of Jovellanos(p. 38) and Núñez de Arce (p. 144), et al. The neo-classicpoets of the eighteenth century and some of the earlierromanticists even used it in redondillas or assonated:lxiv
En pago de este amor que, mal mi grado,
Hasta el crimen me lleva en su delirio,
Y á no verse por ti menospreciado
Mi virtud elevara hasta el martirio...
¿Por qué de nuevo pálida tristeza
Tus rosadas mejillas descolora?
¿Por qué tu rostro en lágrimas se inunda?
¿Por qué suspiras, niña, y te acongojas?
(Bretón de los Herreros, ¿Quién es ella? )
But the poets of the Siglo de Oro and the neo-classic poetsgenerally used it in combination with 7-syllable lines, as inLeon's verses:
¡Qué descansada vida
la del que huye el mundanal rüido,
y sigue la escondida
senda por donde han ido
los pocos sabios que en el mundo han sido!
Strophes of three 11-syllable lines and one 5-syllable line( versos sáficos) are not uncommon in highly lyric poems.Usually, in the long lines, the inner accent falls on thefourth syllable, with syllabic stress on the eighth, and withcesura after the fifth syllable. Thus:31
Dulce vecino de la verde selva,
Huésped eterno del Abril florido,
Vital aliento de la madre Venus,
Céfiro blando.
(Villegas, Al céfiro)
Footnote 31: (return)
Mele ( op. cit) states that the Sapphic ode was introduced into Spainfrom Italy by Antonio Agustín, bishop of Tarragona, in the first half ofthe sixteenth century, and quotes these lines by Agustín: Júpiter torna, como suele, rico:
Cuerno derrama Jove copiöso,
Ya que bien puede el pegaseo monte
Verse y la cumbre.
lxv
The romanticists used the versos sáficos with rime. Thus,Zorrilla:
Huye la fuente al manantial ingrata,
El verde musgo en derredor lamiendo,
Y el agua limpia en su cristal retrata
Cuanto va viendo.
In the Sapphic strophe of Francisco de la Torre (d. 1594),the short line has seven syllables, and the long line mayhave inner rhythmic accent on the sixth, or on the fourthsyllable. Thus: El frío Bóreas y el helado Noto
Apoderados de la mar insana
Anegaron agora en este puerto
Una dichosa nave.
( ¡Tirsi, Tirsi! vuelve y endereza)
The Sapphic strophe of Francisco de la Torre has been notinfrequently imitated. Thus, Bécquer: Volverán las obscuras golondrinas
En tu balcón sus nidos á colgar,
Y, otra vez, con el ala á sus cristales
Jugando llamarán.
(p. 122, l. 24--p. 123, l. 2)32
Footnote 32: (return) These long lines are especially cantabile, as most are accented onthe third and sixth syllables. Only one is accented on the fourth andeighth.
The 7-syllable line is commonly used in combination withthose of eleven syllables (see above).
In the seventeenthcentury, particularly, the 7-syllable line was used in anacreontics, lxviartistic romances, quintillas, etc., in imitation of theItalian settenario, as in Villegas' Cantilena beginning:
Yo vi sobre un tomillo
Quejarse un pajarillo,
Viendo su nido amado,
De quien era caudillo,
De un labrador robado.
In present-day songs the 7-syllable line is rather rare, exceptin combination with lines of five syllables, as in:
Camino de Valencia,
Camino largo...
And:
Á la puerta del cielo
Venden zapatos...
In these lines there is no fixed inner rhythmic accent.
The Old Spanish Alexandrine verse-line was composed oftwo 7-syllable half-lines. In the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies numerous monkish narrative poems ( mester declereçía) were written in this measure:
En el nonbre del Padre,—que fizo toda cosa,
E de don Jhesu Christo,—Fijo dela Gloriosa,
Et del Spiritu Sancto,—que egual dellos posa,
De un confessor sancto—quiero fer vna prosa...
(Gonzalo de Berceo)
The old Alexandrine fell before the rising popularity ofthe arte mayor verse early in the fifteenth century. In theeighteenth century a 13-syllable Alexandrine appears inSpanish in imitation of the classic French line. This laterSpanish Alexandrine is not composed of two distinct half-lines.
lxviiIt also has, like its French prototype, alternatecouplets of masculine and feminine lines ( versos agudos and versos llanos or graves). Thus, Iriarte: En cierta catedral una campana había
Que sólo se tocaba algún solemne día
Con el más recio son, con pausado compás,
Cuatro golpes ó tres solía dar, no más.
There is an inner rhythmic accent on the sixth syllable.Iriarte also revived the older Alexandrine, but withouthiatus:
Cuando veo yo algunos,—que de otros escritores
Á la sombra se arriman,—y piensan ser autores...
Recent poets have revived the old Alexandrine.33 Thus,Rubén Darío uses it, even retaining the hiatus betweenthe half-lines; but instead of grouping the lines in quatrainswith monorime, as the old monks did, he uses assonancein alternate lines, which is, so far as I know, withoutprecedent: Es con voz de la Biblia—ó verso de Withman
Que habría que llegar—hasta ti, ¡cazador!
Primitivo y moderno,—sencillo y complicado,
Con un algo de Wáshington—y mucho de Nemrod...
Footnote 33: (return) For their use of this line with ternary movement, see p. lxxix.
Lines of five or six syllables usually have a mingled binaryand ternary movement: Una barquera
Hallé bizarra,
De pocos años
Y muchas gracias.
(N. Moratín)
lxviii
Salí á las diez
Á ver á Clori
(No lo acerté):
Horas menguadas
Debe de haber...
(L. Moratín)
Lines of 5+5 syllables ( versos asclepiadeos) are occasionallywritten: Id en las alas—del raudo céfiro,
Humildes versos,—de las floridas
Vegas que diáfano—fecunda el Arlas,
Adonde lento—mi patrio río
Ve los alcázares—de Mantua excelsa.
(L. Moratín)
The Mexican poet Pesado used the same line in his Serenata:
¡Oh tú que duermes—en casto lecho,
De sinsabores—ajeno el pecho,
Y á los encantos—de la hermosura
Unes las gracias—del corazón,
Deja el descanso,—doncella pura,
Y oye los ecos—de mi canción!
The same measure appears in a patriotic song, Himno deRiego:
En las cabezas—él proclamó
La suspirada—constitución,
Y enarbolando—marcial pendón,
Á los leales—acaudilló.. .34
Footnote 34: (return)
It should be noted that these latter verses, like most Spanish patrioticsongs, are sung with ternary movement, thus: Èn las cabèzas—èl proclamò...
lxix
This 10-syllable measure is cantabile, and its phrases aretoo short and too regular to make good recitative verse.
Versos alcaicos differ from the asclepiadeos in that theformer have, in a strophe, two lines of 5 +
5, one of nine,and one of ten syllables. Thus, in these lines of VictorioGiner (who probably introduced this strophe into Spainin the second half of the nineteenth century): Y si los nautas, cantando el piélago,
Con remos hieren y espumas alzan,
Se aduerme á los ecos sus penas
Y á los ecos su batel avanza.
Juan Luis Estelrich ( Poesías, 1900) uses versos alcaicos withthe first two lines of each strophe esdrújulo, in imitation ofCarducci:
Carmen, tu nombre trae al espíritu
Vuelo de aromas, susurro de árboles,
Los píos consorcios del cielo,
Y el cantar melodioso del Lacio.
( Á Carmen Valera. )35
Footnote 35: (return) Cf. Mele, op. cit.
Romances in lines of 6 + 6 (or 6 + 5) syllables occur inpopular Spanish verse, as in the Asturian romance of DonBueso, beginning:
Camina don Bueso—mañanita fría