The second essential element of Spanish verse is a rhythmic
distribution of accents within a line. Words have an accent of their
own and another stronger accent on account of their position in a
verse.
This extraordinary accentual stress, which strengthens periodically
certain naturally accented syllables of a verse, is known as _rhythmic
accent_. It plays somewhat the same rôle as did quantity in Latin
verse. All other accents and pauses in the verse are subservient to
the rhythmic accent.
Spanish verse being accentual, however, and not quantitative, the
terms used to determine the regular recurrence of long and short
syllables in Latin verse are not very applicable to it, and few
compositions are regular in the arrangement of the stress.