The regularity of the beats in English verse is of itself sufficient to
indicate when a line of poetry is ended, even though there be no rime to
mark that end. Hence blank verse has been highly developed by English
poets, and many, like Milton, have held it to be the noblest form of
verse. Blank verse is impossible in French, because French with its lack
of verbal stress has no other device than rime to mark the end of a
verse. Without rime French blank verse would be indistinguishable from
rhythmic prose. In Spanish the stress is not so heavy as in the Germanic
languages, but, on the other hand, is much stronger than in French.
Spanish blank verse is not unknown, but has never been cultivated with
great success. It is evident that in this language too, lacking as it
does regular rhythm in its versification, rime is much more necessary
than in English. However, an occasional _verso suelto_, or blank verse,
intermingled with rimed ones, is very common.
Two words rime with one another when there is identity of sound between
the last stressed vowels and between any letters which may follow these
vowels. Rime is masculine (in Spanish _rima aguda_) when the last
syllables bear the stress: _mal_--_cristal_; or feminine when an
unstressed vowel follows the stressed one (in Spanish _rima llana_):
_hermosura_--_locura_. Inasmuch as _b_ and _v_ represent the same sound,
they rime. The weak vowel of a diphthong is ignored for riming purposes;
thus _vuelo_ rimes with _cielo_. Good poets avoid obvious or easy
rimes such as those yielded by flexional endings and suffixes. It is
permissible to rime two identically-spelled words if they are in fact
different words in meaning: _ven_ (they see) rimes with _vén_ (come).
Assonance is the identity of sound of two or more stressed vowels and
the final following vowels, if there are any. In case consonants stand
after the stressed vowel they are disregarded.
Assonance is of two sorts: single assonance (_asonante agudo_),
_están_--_va_--_parar_--_jamás_, etc.; and double assonance (_asonante
llano_), _cuentan_--_tierra_--_dejan _or _coronada_--_gasa_--_baña_. In
assonanced verse the assonanced words end the even lines. The odd are
usually blank, though sometimes rimed. A _voz aguda_ cannot assonate
with a _voz llana_, but there is no objection to the introduction of
_voces esdrújulas_ into _asonante llano_. In this case only the stressed
and the final vowels of the _esdrújula_ are counted; for example,
_América_ assonances with _crea_. When diphthongs enter into assonance,
the weak vowel is ignored: _pleita_ assonances with _pliega_.
Assonance is not unknown in English, especially in popular or folk
verse; but we generally regard it as a faulty rime. Thus in the British
national anthem we read:
Send him victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the king!
"Over us" plainly assonates, rather than rimes, with "glorious," but
this is dangerously close to doggerel. Assonance is unsuited to the
genius of any language possessed of a rich vowel-system. This is evident
to any one who has read Archbishop Trench's attempt to render Calderon's
verse into English assonance.