HIATUS.
Two sounded vowels coming together form a "hiatus." A hiatus between a vowel at the end of a word and another at the beginning of the next, is forbidden. Hence, l. 546, where the straightforward expression would have been lui échappe, Racine wrote the equivalent nous échappe, in order to avoid the hiatus.
Lastly, a sounded vowel, followed by an unelided 'mute e,' must be at the end of the line. Thus the word Mardochée must always be at the end of the line, or else be followed by a word beginning with a vowel or 'mute h,' so that its 'mute e' may be elided. Cf. ll. 44, 618, and 156, 459, etc. Such words as armées, joies, etc., whose 'mute e' cannot be elided, can never occur in the body of the line. The only exception is made in favor of the verb-endings in -oient and -aient. Cf. ll. 527, 1111.
In French poetry, as in French grammar, 'mute h' always = a vowel, and 'aspirate h' = a consonant.
The rules given above apply to classical French poetry only. The modern poetical schools of the nineteenth century have been taking liberties with them, especially with the caesura. The latest school of French poets, the symbolistes or décadents as they style themselves, are attempting to overthrow every one. At their hands the caesura has finally disappeared, and the following form, called a ternaire, has become possible:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Où je filai | pensivement | la blanche laine. (Th. de Banville.)
Then the 'mute e's' are disregarded:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Avec les filles | du vieux seigneur | en robes blanches.
(H. de Régnier.)
The number of syllables is of little account:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
_Des mortes douces | qui moururent là | quelque soir.
(H. de Régnier).
The hiatus is no longer tabooed, and lastly, not only the artificial rules of rhyme, but rhyme itself, is being done away with: assonance may take its place. If the constitution of the French language did not make it unlikely that these reforms should prove permanent, the vehicle of French poetic thought would become mere harmonious prose.