Chapter 5

Chapter 53,510 wordsPublic domain

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 coincide with the end of the word that receives the inner rhythmic accent, 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 accents do 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 sonnets of Lope de Vega (p. 14) and Calderón (p. 18), the _Epístola satírica_ of Quevedo (p. 15), the blank verse of Jovellanos (p. 38) and Núñez de Arce (p. 144), _et al._ The neo-classic poets of the eighteenth century and some of the earlier romanticists even used it in _redondillas_ or assonated: page lxiv

En pago de este amor que, mal mi gr=ado=, Hasta el crimen me lleva en su del=irio=, Y á no verse por ti menospreci=ado= Mi virtud elevara hasta el mart=irio=...

¿Por qué de nuevo pálida tristeza Tus rosadas mejillas descol=o=r=a=? ¿Por qué tu rostro en lágrimas se inunda? ¿Por qué suspiras, niña, y te acong=o=j=a=s? (Bretón de los Herreros, _¿Quién es ella?_)

But the poets of the Siglo de Oro and the neo-classic poets generally used it in combination with 7-syllable lines, as in Leon'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 the fourth syllable, with syllabic stress on the eighth, and with cesura 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: Mele (_op. cit_) states that the Sapphic ode was introduced into Spain from Italy by Antonio Agustín, bishop of Tarragona, in the first half of the 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. page 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. (p. 86, ll. 3-6)

In the Sapphic strophe of Francisco de la Torre (d. 1594), the short line has seven syllables, and the long line may have inner rhythmic accent on the sixth, or on the fourth syllable. 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 not infrequently 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: These long lines are especially cantabile, as most are accented on the third and sixth syllables. Only one is accented on the fourth and eighth.]

The 7-syllable line is commonly used in combination with those of eleven syllables (see above). In the seventeenth century, particularly, the 7-syllable line was used in anacreontics, artistic _romances, quintillas,_ page lxvi etc., in imitation of the Italian _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, except in 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 of two 7-syllable half-lines. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries numerous monkish narrative poems (_mester de clereçía_) 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 of the _arte mayor_ verse early in the fifteenth century. In the eighteenth century a 13-syllable Alexandrine appears in Spanish in imitation of the classic French line. This later Spanish Alexandrine is not composed of two distinct half-lines. It also has, like its French page lxvii prototype, alternate couplets 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 without hiatus:

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 between the half-lines; but instead of grouping the lines in quatrains with monorime, as the old monks did, he uses assonance in alternate lines, which is, so far as I know, without precedent:

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... (p. 211, ll. 1-4)

[Footnote 33: For their use of this line with ternary movement, see p. lxxix.]

Lines of five or six syllables usually have a mingled binary and ternary movement:

Una barquera Hallé bizarra, De pocos años Y muchas gracias. (N. Moratín) page 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 occasionally written:

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! (P. 199, ll. 1-6)

The same measure appears in a patriotic song, _Himno de Riego_:

En las cabezas--él proclamó La suspirada--constitución, Y enarbolando--marcial pendón, Á los leales--acaudilló...[34]

[Footnote 34: It should be noted that these latter verses, like most Spanish patriotic songs, are sung with ternary movement, thus:

Èn las cabèzas--èl proclamò...] page lxix This 10-syllable measure is cantabile, and its phrases are too short and too regular to make good recitative verse.

_Versos alcaicos_ differ from the _asclepiadeos_ in that the former have, in a strophe, two lines of 5 + 5, one of nine, and one of ten syllables. Thus, in these lines of Victorio Giner (who probably introduced this strophe into Spain in 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_ with the first two lines of each strophe _esdrújulo_, in imitation of Carducci:

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: Cf. Mele, _op. cit._]

_Romances_ in lines of 6 + 6 (or 6 + 5) syllables occur in popular Spanish verse, as in the Asturian _romance_ of _Don Bueso_, beginning:

Camina don Bueso--mañanita fría á tierra de moros--á buscar amiga...

(Men. Pel., _Ant._ X, 56: cf. also _Ant._ XI, 102)

This measure was also used in _endechas_, as in _Los comendadores de Córdoba_ (fifteenth century), beginning:

¡Los comendadores,--por mi mal os vi! Yo vi á vosotros,--vosotros á mí... page lxx The 9-syllable line was not well received in Spain, and it has been little used. Iriarte, in his desire to vary the metrical constructions of his fables, used it at least once:

Sobre una mesa, cierto día, Dando estaba conversación Á un Abanico y á un Manguito Un Paraguas ó Quitasol...

There is certainly no fixed inner rhythmic accent in these lines. The fact seems to be that the 9-syllable line is too long to be uttered comfortably in one phrase, or breath-group, and it is too short to be regularly divided into parts by cesura.

B. VERSE WITH TERNARY MOVEMENT

Verse with regular ternary movement may occur in lines of any length, but it is commonly found only in lines of ten, eleven or twelve syllables. Many ternary lines of five and six syllables are found, but they are almost invariably mingled with binary lines. This _rondel antiguo_ (Nebrija, quoted by Men. Pel., _Ant._ V. 66) is ternary throughout, it would seem:

Despide plazer y pone tristura; crece en querer vuestra hermosura.

For mixed movements, see the _serranilla_ on p. 45, l. 9 f.

In lines with _regular_ ternary movement, properly speaking, every primary stress receives a rhythmic accent, and these accents are always separated by two page lxxi atonic syllables, as in:

Yo no sè como bàilan aquì, Que en mi tièrra no bàilan ansì...

Rarely one finds 6-syllable and 9-syllable lines with regular ternary movement, and these are probably never of popular origin. Thus:

Serèna la lùna Alùmbra en el cièlo, Domìna en el suèlo Profùnda quietùd...

(Espronceda, _El reo de muerte_, II)

Y luègo el estrèpito crèce Confùso y mezclàdo en un sòn, Que rònco en las bòvedas hòndas Tronàndo furiòso zumbò...

(Espronceda, _Estudiante de Salamanca_)

Formerly the Spanish 10-syllable line occurred usually in combination with other lines, as in:

En la calle de Atòcha, ¡litòn! Que vìve mi dàma; Yo me llàmo Bartòlo, ¡litòn! Litòque, vitòque, y[36] èlla Catànla. --En la càlle del Sòrdo, ¡litòn! Que vìve mi mòzo, Pues á cuànto le pìdo, ¡litòn! Litòque, vitòque, que sièmpre está sòrdo.

[Footnote 36: There is hiatus here.]

(Quiñones de Benavente, _Entremeses, bailes, loas y sainetes_, quoted by Milá y Fontanals, _Obras completas_, Vol. V, p. 324 f.) page lxxii Calderón used it in the _Viña del Señor_:

Á la vìña, á la vìña, zagàles; Zagàles, venìd, venìd á la vìña. Á la vìña, á la vìña, zagàles, Y vàya de jìra, de bùlla y de bàile. Zagàles, venìd, venìd á la vìña, Y vàya de bàile, de bùlla y de jìra.

A recent number of the _Ilustración Española y Americana _ (15 Enero, 1911) contains lines of similar construction by Don Rafael Torromé:

Al miràr su carìta sonriènte, Tan dùlce y tan buèna, Siempre obsèrvo que mi àlma presiènte, Con duèlo y con pèna, Que más tàrde este mùndo inclemènte Trocarà en sentimièntos de hièna Los pùros afèctos de su àlma inocènte.

Iriarte did not hesitate to write fables in these 10-syllable lines alone:

De sus hìjos la tòrpe Avetùrda El pesàdo volàr conocìa...

And the romanticists of the nineteenth century used it not infrequently:

Con inmòvil, irònica muèca Inclinàron formàndo en redòr...

(Espronceda, _Est. de Sal._)

Del salòn en el àngulo obscùro, De su duèño tal vèz olvidàda, Silenciòsa y cubièrta de pòlvo, Veìase el àrpa. (Bécquer, _Rima_ VII) page lxiii In the nineteenth century this line came to be popular in patriotic songs which are sung by the multitude, while the crash of the drum marks the rhythmic accents:

Entonèmos festìvos cantàres, Pues el dìa felìz ha llegàdo, Que del yùgo servìl aliviàdo Goza yà el Españòl libertàd.

(_La Constitución_)

Al combàte corrèd, Bayamèses, Que la pàtria os contèmpla orgullòsa; No temàis una muèrte gloriòsa, Que morìr por la pàtria es vivìr.

(Cuban national hymn, cf. p. 251)

The commoner form of verse with 11-syllable ternary lines is that popularly called "_de gaita gallega_" (Men. Pel., _Ant._, V, p. cxcv; X, 141. Cf. also Milá, _op. cit._), the assumption being that this verse is intimately related to that type of popular Galician poetry known as the _muiñeira_, which was sung to the music of the bagpipe. These lines are typical of the "_endecasílabos de gaita gallega_":

Tànto bailè á la puèrta del cùra, Tànto bailè que me diò calentùra; Tànto bailè á la puèrta del hòrno, Tànto bailè que me dièron un bòllo.[37]

[Footnote 34: Many Galician _muiñeiras_ have been collected: cf. Milá, _op. cit._; Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos, _Cancioneiro de Ajuda_, Vol. II, Halle, 1904; José Pérez Ballesteros, _Cancionero popular gallego_, Madrid, 1885.] page lxxiv Menéndez y Pelayo (_Ant._ X, 141) gives, in his collection of _Romances tradicionales de Asturias_, the following one in ternary 11-syllable lines:

=La tentación=

--¡Ày, probe Xuàna de cuèrpo garrido! ¡Ày, probe Xuàna de cuèrpo galàno! ¿Dònde le dèxas al tù buen amigo? ¿Dònde le dèxas al tù buen amàdo? --¡Muèrto le dèxo á la orìlla del rìo, muèrto le dèxo á la orìlla del vàdo! --¿Cuànto me dàs, volverètelo vìvo? ¿Cuànto me dàs, volverètelo sàno? --Dòyte las àrmas y dòyte el rocìno, dòyte las àrmas y dòyte el cabàllo. --No hè menestèr ni armàs ni rocìno, no hè menestèr ni armàs ni cabàllo...

It should be noted that this poem has assonance of the odd and of the even lines. Men. Pel. says of this popular 11-syllable _romance_ that «su aparición en la poesía popular castellana es un fenómeno singular, aun en Asturias misma, y hasta ahora no se ha presentado más ejemplo que éste.» Note the apparent shifting of stress in _armas_. Iriarte and L. Moratin did not scorn to use this line.

Iriarte:

Cièrta criàda la càsa barrìa Còn una escòba muy sùcia y muy vièja...

Moratin (in the chorus of _Padres del Limbo_):

Hùyan los àños con ràpido vuèlo; Gòce la tièrra duràble consuèlo; Mìre á los hòmbres piadòso el Señòr... page lxxv The 11-syllable line of ternary movement has had less vogue in artistic verse than those of ten and twelve syllables.[38]

[Footnote 38: In _Las hijas del Cid_ E. Marquina has used a flexible 11-syllable ternary line beginning with either [\-] - - [\-] or - [\-] - [\-]:

Sus nòmbres jùntos los llèvo en el alma, Jùntos los guàrda tambièn mi memòria.

These are blank verses with occasional assonance.]

The Spanish ternary 12-syllable line was formerly used chiefly in combination with lines of ten or eleven syllables. Some examples of mingled 10-and 12-syllable lines have already been given above. Another is:

Mancebìto, perdòne las hèmbras, Que còmen y bèben y no tienen rèntas. --Pues, mocìtas, maldìtas sean èllas, Ó còsan ó làbren ó càiganse muèrtas.

A song of mingled 11-and 12-syllable lines begins thus:

Al pàsar la bàrca, me dìjo el barquèro: Mòza bonìta no pàga dinero.[39]

[Footnote 39: Cf. Milá, _op. cit._ In singing _pasar_, there is apparently a shifting of stress which is not uncommon in songs.]

Efforts have been made from time to time to use the ternary movements in erudite verse, but these, for the most part, have proven futile. The most serious and the most successful attempt appears in the use of the _copla de arte mayor_ in the fifteenth century. The _copla (metro, versos) de arte mayor_ consists of mingled 12-and 11-syllable lines arranged in strophes of eight lines, each with consonantal rime according to some definite scheme. The _arte mayor_ verse attained to its most perfect form and its greatest popularity in page lxxvi _El laberinto de la fortuna_ (1444?), by Juan de Mena, of which the following is a strophe:

Amores me dieron corona de amores porque mi nombre por más bocas ande; entonçes no era mi mal menos grande, quando me dauan plazer sus dolores; vençen el seso sus dulçes errores, mas non duran sienpre, segund luego plazen; pues me fizieron del mal que vos fazen, sabed al amor desamar, amadores.

(Strophe 106)

The old _arte mayor_ verse has these distinguishing characteristics:

The line is divided into hemistichs, each of which may have four, five or six syllables, thus:

(1) (-) - - - [/-] (-) | (-) - - - [/-] (-),

except that the final syllable of the first hemistich and the initial syllable of the second may not both be lacking. These arrangements may also occur (the third is rare):

(2) (-) - - - [/-] - - | - - - [/-] (-)

(3) (-) - - - [/-] | - - - - - [/-] (-).

Examples of types:

(2) E ví á Pitágoras | que defendía... (Str. 118) Bien como médico | mucho famoso... (Str. 178)

(3) Quando el señor | es en neçessidad... (Str. 258) page lxxvii The initial unstressed syllable of the first hemistich is lacking in approximately one-third of the lines of the _Laberinto_. These lines resemble the 11-syllable _gaita gallega_ verse, and the others resemble the popular Galician 12-syllable ternary line, for in both the final unstressed syllable of the first hemistich may fall,[40] which seems to indicate that the appearance of the _arte mayor_ verse in Castilian was due to Galician influence.

[Footnote 40: Cf. these Galician _muiñeiras_, cited by Milá y Fontanals (_Romanía_, VI, p. 47 f.):

Again, as in many Galician songs of this type, the ternary movement of the old _arte mayor_ verse is not strictly regular. Approximately nine-tenths of the lines in the _Laberinto_ may be read with regular ternary movement:

(-) [/-] - - [/-] (-) | (-) [/-] - - [/-] (-),

by giving a rhythmic accent to a syllable with secondary stress or to a middle syllable in a group of atonics, in a not inconsiderable number of lines, as in:

Pòr las altùras, | collàdos y cèrros... Assì que tu ères | la gòvernadòra...

In the remaining lines the commonest movement is:

(-) - [/-] - [/-] (-) | (-) - [/-] - [/-] (-),

as in:

Aquel claro padre, aquel dulce fuente... page lxxviii

In the second half of the sixteenth century and in the seventeenth century, the _arte mayor_ verse was out of fashion, although it appeared occasionally, as in these lines of Lope de Vega (a variety of the Sapphic strophe), with inner rime:

Amor poderoso en cielo y en tierra, dulcísima guerra de nuestros sentidos, ¡oh, cuántos perdidos con vida inquiëta tu imperio sujeta!

(From first act of _Dorotea_)

In the nineteenth century it was restored to favor by the romanticists.[41] Good examples are: Espronceda, _El templario_; Avellaneda, _Las siete palabras_; and Zorrilla, _Á un torreón_ (part). Some writers used it even in the drama (cf. Gil y Zárate, _Guzmán el bueno_). The modern _arte mayor_ verse is written in 12-syllable lines, usually with regular ternary movement. Thus:

¡Oh Antìlla dichòsa! | ¿qué màgicos sònes, Qué lùz inefàble, | qué extràña alegrìa, Del cièlo destièrran los nègros crespònes, Prestàndo á esta nòche | la pòmpa del dìa?

¿Por qué tan ufàna, | tan bèlla la lùna Con fàz refulgènte | comiènza su gìro, Y no hày leve sòmbra | que crùce importùna Su tròno esmaltàdo | de plàta y zafìro?

(Avellaneda, _Serenata de Cuba_)

[Footnote 41: Iriarte, of course, had written a fable or two in _arte mayor_ verse. Cf. _Fábula_ XXXIX.] page lxxix Soldàdos, la Pàtria | nos llàma á la lìd; Jurèmos por èlla | vencèr ó morìr; Serènos, alègres, | valièntes, osàdos, Cantèmos, soldàdos, | el hìmno á la lìd: Ya nuèstros acèntos | el òrbe se admìre, Y en nòsotros[42] mìre | los hìjos del Cìd; Ya nuèstros acèntos | el òrbe se admìre, Y en nòsotros mìre | los hìjos del Cìd. (_Himno de Riego_: cf. p. 242)

[Footnote 42: Note in _nosotros_ the shifting of stress, which the musical notation indicates clearly.]

Lines of fourteen and fifteen syllables with ternary movement are never popular, and in artistic verse they are exceedingly rare. Avellaneda used these measures in _Soledad del alma_:

Sàle la auròra risuèña, de flòres vestìda, Dàndole al cièlo y al càmpo variàdo colòr; Tòdo se anìma sintièndo brotàr nueva vìda, Càntan las àves, y el àura suspìra de amòr.

Huyèron velòces--cual nùbes que el viènto arrebàta-- Los brèves momèntos de dìcha que el cièlo me diò... ¿Por què mi existència, ya inùtil, su cùrso dilàta, Si el tèrmino ansiàdo á su espàlda perdìdo dejò?

Some recent poets have attempted to write ternary Alexandrine verse. Thus, the Peruvian poet, José S. Chocano (1867-):

Los Estados Unidos, como argolla de bronce, contra un clavo sujetan de la América un pie; y la América debe, si pretende ser libre, imitarles primero, é igualarles después. page lxxx Imitemos ¡oh Musa! las crujientes estrofas que en el Norte se arrastran con la gracia de un tren, y que giren las rimas como ruedas veloces y que caigan los versos como varas de riel. (_La epopeya del Pacífico_)

STROPHES

There are certain conventional combinations of line and rime known by special names. Those used in modern Spanish may best be considered under the heads (I) Assonance, (II) Consonantal Rime, and (III) No Rime.

I. (1) The _romance_ is the most characteristic and national of all Spanish meters. The proper _romance_ consists of 8-syllable lines with assonance in alternate lines[43] (cf. pp. 1-8, 42, etc.). The structure of the _romance_ line has already been treated (p. lxi). In the old _romances_ there was no division into stanzas, but poets from the end of the sixteenth century on regularly employ a pause after every fourth line, thereby creating a series of quatrains (pp. 42, 60, etc.), except in the drama (p. 19).

[Footnote 43: Historically, of i6-syllable lines, all assonating.]