As Latin terms of versification are sometimes applied to Spanish
verse, the following rules may be helpful.
A _trochaic_ octosyllabic line, for example, substituting stress for
quantity, would be scanned
/ -- | / -- | / -- | / --,
with the stress on the first, third, fifth, and seventh syllables.
_Iambic_ verse would have a regular alternation of unaccented and
accented syllables, -- / -- /, etc.
_Dactylic_ verse would have a regular recurrence of an accented
syllable followed by two unaccented syllables, etc.
/ -- -- | / -- -- |, etc.
_Amphibrachic_ verse would be formed by a regular recurrence of three
syllables of which the middle one would be stressed, -- / --. This
construction is sometimes followed in lines of twelve syllables (p.
164, I, 1. 2), and also in lines of six syllables (p. 167, VII, 1.-4).
_Anapestic_ verse consists of a regular recurrence of two unstressed
syllables preceding a stressed syllable, -- -- /. This is sometimes
found in ten-syllable lines (p. 164, I, 1. i).