The rules of French versification have not always been the same.
The classical movement of the seventeenth century in its reforms
proscribed certain things, like hiatus, overflow lines, mute _e_
before the caesura, which had been current hitherto, and the
Romanticists of this century have endeavored to give greater diversity
and flexibility to verse-structure both by restoring some of these
liberties and by introducing new ones. Especially have great
innovations been advocated in the last few years by the youngest
school of poets, but they have as yet found no general acceptance.
The unit of French versification is not a fixed number of long and
short, or accented and unaccented, syllables in a certain definite
arrangement, that is, a foot, but a line. A line is a certain number
of syllables ending in a rhyme which binds it to one or more other
lines. The lines found in lyric verse vary in length from one to
thirteen syllables; but lines with an even number of syllables are
much more used than those with an odd number.
In determining the number of syllables the general rules of syllabic
division are followed, and each vowel or diphthong involves a
syllable. But the following points are to be noted:
1. Mute _e_ final or followed by _s_ or _nt_ is not counted at the end
of the line.
2. Final mute _e_ in the body of the line is not counted as a syllable
before a word beginning with a vowel or mute _h_ (elision).
3. Mute _e_ in the termination of the third person plural, imperfect
and conditional, of verbs is not counted; nor is it counted in the
future and conditional of verbs of the first conjugation whose stem
ends in a vowel (_oublieront_, also written in verse _oublîront_; see
p. 130, l. 14).
4. When two or more vowel sounds other than mute _e_ come together
within a word they are sometimes treated as a diphthong and make but
one syllable, sometimes separated and counted as two. Usage is not
altogether consistent in this particular; the same combination is
in some words pronounced as two syllables (_ni-ais, li-en, pri-ère,
pri-ons, jou-et_), in others as one (_biais, rien, bar-rière,
ai-mions, fou-et_); and even the same word is sometimes variable
(_ancien, hier, duel_). In general such combinations are monosyllabic
if they have developed from a single vowel in the Latin parent word.
5. Certain words allow a different spelling according to the demands
of the verse (_encore_ or _encor_, _Charles_ or _Charle_).
Since the sixteenth century, hiatus has been forbidden by the rules of
French versification. But, as we have just seen (under 4 above), two
vowels are allowed to come together in the interior of a word. What
the rule against hiatus does proscribe then is the use of a word
ending in a vowel (except mute _e_, which is elided; cf. 2 above)
before a word beginning with a vowel or mute _h_, and the use of words
in which mute _e_ not final follows a vowel in the interior of the
word; e.g. _tu as, et ont, livrée jolie; louent, allées_. But hiatus
is not regarded as existing when two vowels are brought together by
the elision of a mute _e_; e.g. in Hugo's lines, the _vie a_ in
L'ouragan de leur vie a pris toutes les pages (p. 108, l. 20),
and the _joie et_ in
Sois ma force et ma joie et mon pilier d'airain (p. 130, l. 8).
Cf. also 1 and 3 above.
The rhythm of the line comes from the relation of its stressed to its
unstressed syllables. All lines have a stress (_lève_) on the rhyme
syllable, and if they have more than four syllables they have one or
more other stresses. Lines that consist of more than eight syllables
are usually broken by a caesural pause, which must follow a stressed
syllable. In lines of ten syllables the pause comes generally after
the fourth syllable, sometimes after the fifth; in lines of twelve
syllables, after the sixth.
The line of twelve syllables is the most important and widely used
of all and is known as the Alexandrine, from a poem of the twelfth
century celebrating the exploits of Alexander the Great, which is one
of the earliest examples of its use. It is almost without exception
the measure of serious and dignified dramatic and narrative poetry,
and even in lyric verse it is used more frequently than any other.
From MALHERBE to VICTOR HUGO the accepted rule demanded a caesura
after the sixth syllable and a pause at the end of the line; this
divided the line into two equal portions and separated each line from
its neighbors, preventing the overflow (_enjambement_) of one line
into the next. The line thus constructed had two fixed stresses, one
on the sixth syllable, before the caesura, which therefore had to
be the final syllable of a word and could not have mute _e_ for its
vowel, and another on the final (twelfth) syllable. There are indeed
in the poets of that period examples of lines in which, when naturally
read, the most considerable pause falls in some other position; but
the line always offers in the sixth place a syllable capable of a
principal stress. There was also regularly one other stressed syllable
in each half-line; it might be any one of the first five syllables,
but is most frequently the third, second, or fourth, rarely the first
or fifth; but the secondary stress might be wanting altogether;
a third stressed syllable in the half-line sometimes occurs. The
Romanticists introduced a somewhat greater flexibility into the
Alexandrine line by permitting the displacement or suppression of the
caesura and the overflow of one line into the next; the displacement
of the caesura sometimes goes so far as to put in the sixth place in
the line a syllable quite incapable of receiving a stress.
In the following stanza of Lamartine (see p. 60), which consists of
Alexandrine lines of the classical type, the stressed syllables are
indicated by italics and the caesura by a dash:
Sal_u_t, bois couronn_é_s--d'un r_e_ste de verd_u_re!
Feuill_a_ges jauniss_a_nts--sur les gaz_o_ns ép_a_is!
Sal_u_t, derniers beaux j_ou_rs!--Le d_eu_il de la nat_u_re
Conv_ie_nt à la doul_eu_r--et pl_aî_t à mes reg_a_rds.