INTRODUCTION
NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF SPANISH LYRIC POETRY.
In the notes to the Anthology an endeavor has been made to indicate clearly the position occupied by each of the poets here represented, with respect to the literary movements of his time. This Introduction, then, need but serve the purpose of outlining those general movements in so far as they have been concerned with lyric production.
Of course we have to do only with the lyric tradition which has found expression in the language of Castile. It is not to be forgotten, however, that it is but one out of several lyric traditions that have flourished within the bounds of Spain; for the Spaniard can point with pride to a poetic production in Latin which extended from the Silver Age of Latin literature well into the Middle Ages, and he knows, too, that the Arabs and the Hebrews who settled on his soil composed and sang in their respective tongues. Those who desire more light upon these traditions will find an interesting account of them in the Prólogo to the first volume of Menéndez y Pelayo’s Antología de poetas líricos castellanos (Madrid, 1890). Suffice it to say that the influence of Arabic and Hebrew literature upon composition in Castilian has been exceedingly slight, and that for literary expression the latter speech is a legitimate heir of Latin in the Iberian peninsula. The Catalan and Portuguese literatures have a tradition entirely xvi independent of that of Castile; we, therefore, disregard them here.
Literature, properly so called, did not appear in the vulgar tongue of Castile until the twelfth century. From that period we have preserved one of the greatest monuments of Old Spanish letters, the epic Poema del Cid. To heroic poetry as instanced by this poem on Roderick of Bivar, which, like most of the early epic legends or cantares de gesta of Castile, must have been produced under the influence of the French chansons de geste, there succeeded, in the thirteenth century, a body of religious and didactic verse, a good part of which is due to the industrious cleric, Gonzalo de Berceo. Very few lyric compositions in Castilian can be found in this century. One, and apparently the earliest of all, is the first piece in our Collection—the Aventura amorosa. Modeled on the French pastourelle or the Provençal pastorela, it shows, like the Spanish heroic legend, the influence of the region whence most of the mediæval Occident derived its first poetic inspiration. Another precious example of lyrism at this early date is a song with certain popular elements in it,—the Cántica de la Virgen, introduced by Berceo into his religious poem, El duelo de la Virgen.
One may marvel that there was so slight an output of Castilian lyric verse at a time when Castile had already begun to be quite active in a literary way. However, the reason is not far to seek. It is found in the fact that the poets of Castile, following what seems to have been a convention with them, wrote their lyrics in the language of an adjoining district, that of Galicia. Into this latter region, as into Portugal generally, the wandering troubadours from Provence had early penetrated, singing everywhere their erotic strains, until, at length, the native poets began to imitate the Provençal manner in their own language, the Galician-Portuguese. Of their amorous and other lyric verse quite an amount is preserved in various Cancioneiros, and these also contain the poems of Castilians xvii and southern Spaniards, who, like the monarch of Castile, Alfonso el Sabio, composed in Galician-Portuguese.[1]
1: For an account of this Galician poetry see Menéndez y Pelayo, l. c., Prólogo, to volume III, and the article on Portuguese literature prepared for Groeber’s Grundriss der romanischen Philologie, vol. II, by C. M. de Vasconcellos.
The fourteenth century is marked by the advent of a Castilian poet who writes in his native speech only. This is Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita, the Villon of Spain and the most original Spanish writer of the whole mediæval period. His lyrics, interspersed among the narrative portions of his Cantares, have the note of personal experience. Much has been made of French influence upon Hita, but, when all is said and done, that influence is restricted to a small proportion of his work, and he remains eminently Spanish in manner, although, for his verse forms, he has had recourse to Galician-Provençal models. These same models were present to the mind of the Chancellor López de Ayala for the lyrics contained in his satiric and didactic Rimado de Palacio, written in the second half of the fourteenth century, and in the fifteenth century they were followed by a whole host of verse writers.
During the first half of the fifteenth century, literary activity was centered in the Court of John II., king of Castile. There, statesmen and courtiers of the type of Álvaro de Luna amused themselves by inditing verses in rivalry with the trovadores who lived by the trade; and a considerable number of their productions,—especially those conceived according to the stereotyped Provençal manner, as adopted formerly in Galicia and in later times in Catalonia, and imported from both regions into Castile,—may be found in the Cancionero of Baena.
By the side of this very artificial Court verse, maintaining as it does the earlier lyric tradition that harks back ultimately to the land beyond the Pyrenees, there appear, in the fifteenth century, two other main divisions xviii of poetry showing new forces brought to bear upon Castilian letters. Of these, the one is chiefly governed by an Italian influence, especially by that of Dante, from whose Divina Commedia it derives the allegorical tendency which is its distinguishing mark; the other reveals the influence of the Renaissance in the attention which it pays to the works of classic antiquity, translating and imitating them. These new influences find expression, above all, in the poems of Imperial, Mena and the Marquis of Santillana. Untrammelled by conventions, Jorge Manrique stands somewhat apart from these three poetic movements in his best work, the mournfully melodious Coplas on the death of his father.
To the fifteenth and the following century belongs the great mass of short lyrico-epic poems or ballads, called Romances—a term also applied to lyrics in quatrains having no epic character whatsoever. It was formerly believed that the ballads, most of which deal with subjects from the history of Spain and with the stories of Charlemagne and his peers, were of much greater antiquity; but the artificiality of the style and contents of the majority of them, and the introduction into them of elements of culture and courtliness much more recent than the times to which they relate, fix their composition as hardly earlier than the end of the fifteenth century. Still, the weight of authority ascribes to certain of them an early oral tradition, and even considers some as developed out of passages taken from the old epic Cantares de gesta.
With the sixteenth century, and as the famous siglo de oro (1550-1680) drew near, the number of lyric poets increased greatly, and the Italianizing influences grew in importance. Boscán, Garcilaso de la Vega and Mendoza were the leading champions of the exotic measures, and they thoroughly naturalized in Spain the sonnet, the hendecasyllable, the ottava rima and kindred forms, some of which had already been introduced in the time of Imperial xix and Santillana. Certain spirits, such as Castillejo and Silvestre, opposed, though not consistently, the endeavors of these innovators; but toward the end of the sixteenth century the Italian manner triumphed, particularly in the works of Herrera and his school at Seville.
Mysticism, ever a prominent characteristic of the Spanish temperament, finds most pleasing expression, during the sixteenth century, in the lyrics of a number of clerical writers. The most attractive of them all is Luis de León, deservedly ranked among the greatest Spanish lyric poets. In him an Italian influence, and the humanizing impress of the Renaissance are also visible.
The Italian manner is henceforth, and throughout the seventeenth century, the dominant one in Spanish verse. It is unnecessary to mention the numerous lyrists who adopted it. The great masters of the siglo de oro—Lope, Calderón, Cervantes—used the foreign measures, though, indeed, they constantly recurred to the older domestic forms, such as the romance, the redondillas, etc.
At the very outset of the seventeenth century there manifested itself in Spanish poetry the vitiating influence of Góngora, a writer whose bombastic and obscure style, termed Gongorism after its originator, wrought the same harm in Spanish letters that Marinism wrought in Italy and Euphuism in England. The mannerisms of Góngora were imitated by later poets, so that his school persisted throughout the century, despite the reaction to sanity attempted by the Argensolas, and the satirist Quevedo. Even the virile Quevedo himself yielded finally to the torrent and wrote, in his later period, verse and prose as extravagant of metaphor and as obscure in style as any that ever came from the pen of Góngora.
The siglo de oro was followed by a period of decline in things political, social and literary, which extended through a considerable portion of the eighteenth century. Poetasters abounded, good taste was at its lowest ebb. xx When matters were at about their worst in the world of letters—and the satire of Jorge Pitillas will indicate how great the decay was—Luzán inaugurated a reform movement by proposing, in his Arte poética, to subject all poetic production in Spanish to rigid rules such as Boileau had imposed upon classic French verse. Luzán’s ideas found favor and, despite the counter-efforts of García de la Huerta, a champion of the older Spanish methods and a bitter opponent of innovations, the disciples of Luzán began to compose dramas and lyrics according to the Gallic laws. The most important lyrist of the new movement was Meléndez-Valdés, about whom gathered the so-called Salamancan school of poets. Of these the best was Cienfuegos, who most nearly approached his master Meléndez in the skill with which he versified according to the precepts from abroad. The fabulists Samaniego and Iriarte also underwent French influence.
The opening years of the nineteenth century witnessed a passionate outburst of Spanish patriotism, which found poetic utterance in the odes directed against the Napoleonic invader by the Tyrtæan poet Quintana, by his friend Gallego and other authors. Although leveled against the French, these compositions were framed in obedience to the canons of the French poetic lawgivers. The rules of French classicism prevailed also in the works of the members of a school made up mainly of young clerics, who had their centre at Seville. Lista and Blanco were among the number of these poets, whose use of French methods was tempered somewhat by their imitation of the manner of Herrera, the leader of the school of Seville that had flourished in the sixteenth and the early seventeenth century, and of that of his disciple Rioja.
With the third decade of the century the wave of Romanticism began to sweep over the land. Triumphant with the drama of Rivas, it reached its apogee of lyrism in the verse of that writer and in the works of the Byronic poet Espronceda and of Zorrilla. Not the least attractive xxi among the authors of the Romantic period are the Cuban poets Heredia and Avellaneda.
The Romantic movement passed away and its unrestrained outpourings of the inner man ceased to be fashionable after the middle of the century. Realism, which has prevailed generally in literature since that time, is not too favorable to the composition of lyric verse, and the production of the latter during the last fifty years has been rather individual than characteristic of any school. Bécquer’s Heinesque strains have not been echoed by any one of note; no one has imitated successfully the poetic philosophizing of Campoamor, the winning poet so lately deceased; Núñez de Arce, the author of the Gritos del combate and the Vértigo, has alone found any considerable following; while the humanism of Valera and Menéndez y Pelayo raises their verse to an intellectual level above the comprehension of ordinary men. The gentle mysticism of León, of which reminiscences are found everywhere throughout the works of Valera, is suggested by the lyrics of Carolina Coronado, who is also of the school of St. Theresa.
NOTES ON SPANISH PROSODY
The following rules are mainly drawn from the excellent Ortología y métrica of A. Bello, published in his Obras completas, Santiago de Chile, 1884, vol. V. Other treatises that may be consulted are E. Benot, Prosodia castellana y versificación, Madrid, 1892; F. Hanssen, Notas á la prosodia castellana, Santiago de Chile, 1900 (in the Anales de la Universidad); Id., Miscelánea de versificación castellana, ibid., 1897; Id., Zur lateinischen und romanischen Metrik, Valparaiso, 1901 (reprint from the Verhandlungen des deutschen Wissenschaftvereins, vol. IV, Santiago de Chile). Cf. also the remarks of E. Stengel in his Romanische Verslehre (pubd. in Gröbers Grundriss xxii der romanischen Philologie, vol. II, part I, Strasburg, 1893) and of G. Baist in his Spanische Literatur (pubd. ibid., vol. II, part II, Strasburg, 1897).
SYLLABIFICATION
The Latin quantitative principle in versification has given way in Spanish to that of syllabification simply. Account is taken, as a rule, not of the greater or less length of the vowel in the syllabic, but of the number of the syllables in a line and of their rhythmical accent.
(α) Vowels and Syllables Within a Word.
A problem of importance is to determine, when two or more vowels come together, whether they form one syllable or more. The vowels are either strong (a, e, o) or weak (i, y, u), and they come together under three chief conditions; viz., ([I]) the accent of the word may be on one of the contiguous vowels; ([II]) it may be on a preceding syllable; ([III]) it may be on a syllable following them.
I. Combinations of Two Vowels, one of which is Accented
(1) If one of two strong vowels (a, e, o) coming together has the accent, they do not form a diphthong, and therefore do not count as a single syllable in the verse. Dissyllables, for example, are Jaén, nao, leal, león; trisyllables are azahar (h mute), creemos, canoa.
Exceptionally, the two strong vowels are contracted: e.g., Samaniego has contracted them in the hendecasyllable,
El león, rey de los bosques poderoso,
and Espronceda in a tetrasyllable,
Y no hay playa
Sea cualquiera, etc.
This contraction, called synæresis, is less harsh when the unaccented vowel is e. It is frequent, however, with the first two vowels of ahora.
(2) If two vowels come together, the first strong (a, e, o) and the second weak (i, y, u), and if the accent rests on the strong vowel, they regularly form a diphthong and count as one syllable; e.g., cauto, peine, feudo, convoy, rey, soy. The dissolution of this diphthong constitutes a very violent poetical license. When it occurs it is termed diæresis and is sometimes marked by the dots so called; e.g., glorïoso, suäve.
(3) If the first of the contiguous vowels is strong, and the second weak and accented, they form separate syllables, as in raíz, baúl, roído. Contraction (synæresis) is rare and harsh in such cases: cf. Meléndez Valdés in the hendecasyllable,
Caído del cielo al lodo que le afea.
(4) If the first of the contiguous vowels is weak and the second strong, and the accent is on the weak vowel, they naturally constitute separate syllables, as in día, río, valúa, lloraríamos.
Synæresis is more frequent and less harsh here than in [(3)]; cf. Garcilaso:
Que había de ver con largo acabamiento.
Espronceda:
Los ríos su curso natural reprimen.
(5) If the first of two contiguous vowels is weak and the second is strong and accented, the vowels sometimes form one syllable and sometimes do not. Etymological conditions often determine the case; thus fió is a dissyllable, since it comes from a Latin source (fidavit) in which the i was in a syllable by itself, and bien is a monosyllable, since the i and e form a diphthong evolved out of a single Latin vowel (the ĕ of bĕne).
The chief cases are as follows:
(a) iè and uè from Latin e and o form diphthongs absolutely indissoluble: diente, muerte.
(b) In conjugation, analogy plays a part, and fiamos follows fiar (with the i and the a in distinct syllables), cambiamos follows cambiar (with the i and the a in the same syllable).
Synæresis readily takes place for vowels ordinarily in distinct syllables (fió, etc.); but diæresis hardly obtains for the vowels of a true diphthong (cambió, etc.).
(c) The combinations ió and iè are usually diphthongs in the terminations of the preterite indicative, the future subjunctive, the past tenses of the subjunctive, and the gerund, of verbs of the second and third conjugations: e.g., murió, muriere, muriese, muriera, muriendo. In rió, deslió, rieron, deslieron, the vowels seem to be considered as forming separate syllables, the i being treated as part of the stem and not of the suffix.
(d) The substantival ending -ión (acción, etc.) is generally a diphthong, and rarely suffers dissolution.
(e) In derivatives analogy operates: e.g., naviero and brioso with their i in a separate syllable because of navío and brío (cf. [rule 4]); but glorieta and ambicioso with a diphthong because of gloria and ambición. Ordinarily, such ie and io combinations permit of synæresis if they are properly dissyllabic, and if properly diphthongal they remain indissoluble. Still, adjectives in -i.oso and -u.oso sometimes dissolve their diphthong; e.g., as in Espronceda:
El majestüoso río
Sus claras ondas enluta,
Garcilaso:
El árbol de victoria
Que ciñe estrechamente
Tu glorïosa frente.
(6) Two contiguous weak vowels with the accent on the first of them form an indissoluble diphthong; e.g., xxv muy. Cuita, cuido and related forms once accented the u: cf. [p. 134], l. 20 where Cervantes has descuido in assonance with confuso. So also, Meléndez Valdés assonated tumba and cuidan. Viùda was formerly víuda, and Tirso de Molina assonated it with Lucía, pican, etc.
(7) If the second of two contiguous weak vowels is accented, there is a diphthong sometimes indissoluble and sometimes dissoluble; e.g., indissoluble are fuí and, in modern usage, cuita, cuido and their derivatives; dissoluble are ruin, ruina, ruido, viudo. These later, however, readily admit synæresis.
Analogy operates in verb forms; thus u is in a syllable apart in huyo, arguyo, and so also in huimos, argüimos (but in such cases synæresis is always possible). In cases of a repetition of the same vowel, synæresis hardly obtains; therefore piísimo and duúnviro have four syllables each.
II. Combinations of Two Vowels with the Accent Preceding them
(1) Two contiguous strong vowels after the accent naturally form two syllables: e.g., Dánao, héroe, temiéndoos. Yet the poets usually make diphthongs of them; e.g., Moratín:
Los héroes que la fama
Coronó de laureles,
and only exceptionally treat them as dissyllabic; e.g., Samaniego:
Cuando á un héròè quieras
Coronar con el lauro.
(2) If the first of two contiguous vowels after the accent is strong and the second is weak, they form a diphthong, as in amabais, temierais. But it is frequently dissolved with ease, since in many cases the vowels stood xxvi originally in separate syllables; thus amábades and temiérades were good forms down to the seventeenth century.
(3) If the first of two contiguous vowels after the accent is weak and the second strong, there is a diphthong usually indissoluble; e.g., injuria, limpio, continuo. Dissolution is possible, however, where u is the first vowel (as in continuo, estatua).
III. Combinations of Two Vowels before the Accent
(1) Two contiguous strong vowels before the accent naturally form two syllables; e.g., lealtad, roedor are properly trisyllabic. But synæresis is possible, especially where e is one of the vowels.
(2) If the first of two contiguous vowels before the accent is strong and the second is weak, they naturally form a diphthong; vaivén, peinado. They are regularly in distinct syllables, however, when the first vowel (except a) is part of a prefix, as in preinserto, prohijar, rehusado (prefixes pre-, pro-, re-). Nevertheless, synæresis is here permitted, and the diphthong is normal where a is the vowel of the prefix, as in airado, ahumado.
(3) Usage varies when of two contiguous vowels before the accent the first is weak and the second strong. The derivative follows the simplex; thus the i and the a are in separate syllables in criador and criatura because they so stand in criar, they form one syllable in cambiamiento because they do so in cambiar. But synæresis is always possible where the diphthong does not already exist.
(4) If both the contiguous vowels before the accent are weak, they naturally form a diphthong, as in ciudad, cuidado. Derivatives of words of variable syllabification may imitate their simplex: thus viudo may be either dissyllabic or trisyllabic (cf. [I, rule 7]) and viudez has the same liberty.
IV. Combinations of Three or more Vowels
(1) Three contiguous vowels with the accent on the first. These offer two possible forms of combinations, viz., one of two vowels with the first accented plus one of two vowels after the accent. To these apply the rules already stated. Thus in lóaos we have óa in two syllables according to [I, rule 1], and ao which may be in two syllables by [II, rule 1], therefore all three vowels may be in separate syllables. So, too, in iríais we have ía in two syllables by [I, rule 4], and ai which forms a diphthong by [II, rule 2], therefore the combination íai forms two syllables.
(2) Three contiguous vowels with the accent on the second. There are two combinations possible, one of two vowels with the accent on the second and one of two vowels with the accent on the first. Apply the rules to these: e.g., fiáos has iá in two syllables by [I, rule 5 b] and áo in two syllables by [I, rule 1], so that the combination is trisyllabic; again, cambiáos has iá, a diphthong by [I, rule 5 b], and áo in two syllables by [I, rule 1], therefore the combination has two syllables; buey has ue, a diphthong by [I, rule 5 a], and ey, a diphthong by [I, rule 2], so that the whole combination is linked together and forms one syllable as a triphthong.
(3) Three contiguous vowels with the accent on the last. The combinations are one of two vowels before the accent plus one of two vowels accented on the last. So, applying the rules to rehuí, for example, we find eu (h mute) to be a dissyllable by the exception to [III, rule 2], and uí to be probably a dissyllable by [I, rule 7], so that the combination probably forms three syllables.
(4) Combinations of more than three vowels may be decomposed in a similar way. Thus, decaíais has aíai with four contiguous vowels in three combinations, viz., aí, a dissyllable by [I, rule 3]; ía, a dissyllable by [I, rule 4]; ai, a diphthong by [II, rule 2], so that the combination has three integral elements and three syllables.
N.B.—Despite all these rules, it should be noted that the tendency of the language is toward synæresis.
(β) The Value of Contiguous Vowels in Separate Words.
Between the vowels of separate words there may occur synalœpha or hiatus. Synalœpha is the contracting into a single syllable of the vowels ending one word and those beginning the next word, as in hombre ilustre, soberbio edificio, Si á un infeliz la compasión se niega.
The vowels thus contracted are still pronounced separately, except in cases of the repetition of the same vowel, where only a single prolonged sound is heard, as in casa ajena. As synalœpha may take place where synæresis would be impossible, it is governed by somewhat different rules.
Hiatus—which corresponds to diæresis within a word—occurs when there is no contraction of the final vowel of one word and the initial vowel of the next; as in la hora, bella obra.
The following general observations are necessary:
(1) Mute h is disregarded in the verse and does not prevent synalœpha.
(2) An unaccented weak vowel between two other vowels prevents synalœpha of these latter; thus, comercio y agricultura, in which the io is kept apart from the a by the y, which itself forms a diphthong with the a; so also Sevilla ú Oviedo with the a in one syllable and the uo in another. Some writers have violated this rule, but most have observed it.
(3) ó prevents synalœpha and forms a syllable with the following vowel; Lupercio de Argensola:
El orbe escucha atónito ó atento.
(4) The conjunction é generally prevents synalœpha; Lupercio de Argensola:
Pues he de retratarme, dónde ó cómo
Me pueda yo estar viendo é imitando.
Synalœpha is not wholly inadmissible.
(5) Two similar contiguous vowels form synalœpha, and the sound is a single prolonged one: el voluble elemento.
Three similar contiguous vowels may form synalœpha, but the combination is a harsh one; as in Maury:
No su palanca á Arquímedes le diera.
(6) A pause due to a break in sense does not prevent synalœpha.
Rules for Synalœpha
(1) Synalœpha is necessary where two or more unaccented vowels come together (unless a weak unaccented vowel, or the conjunctions ó, é, intervene); Meléndez Valdés:
Yo vi correr la asoladora guerra
Por la Europa infeliz.
Quintana:
El odio á un tiempo y el amor unirse.
Calderón:
Aunque el negocio he ignorado.
The synalœpha of five vowels is very rare.
(2) When the vowel at the end of the first word is accented, synalœpha is natural; Quintana:
Se heló la risa y se tornó en gemido.
(3) When the accent is on the last word, synalœpha is the general rule, especially when e is the first vowel; grande hombre, esta alma. Upon occasion hiatus sounds better, and especially so under a strong accent.
(a) Hiatus is preferable when there is a close syntactical connection between the vowel before the accent and the accented vowel, as, e.g., between the definite xxx article or the possessive adjective and its substantive, between the preposition and its object, etc.; Calderón:
Es sù àmo un caballero
De mucho valor y brío.
Lupercio de Argensola:
A èstos muerdas y á los otros ladres.
(b) The hiatus is most likely when the accented word is at the end of the phrase or verse, or occupies a strongly accented position in the verse; Meléndez Valdés:
¡Oh gran naturaleza!
¡Cuán magníficà ères!
Maury:
Tal de lò àlto tempestad deshecha.
(c) When the syntactical relation mentioned in [(a)] exists, but the accented word is not in the position stated in [(b)], synalœpha may occur; Martínez de la Rosa:
La oda sublime entusiasmada canta.
(d) The feeling expressed is sometimes rendered best by synalœpha and again by hiatus; thus, the action is accelerated and the energy increased by synalœpha in:
Habla, habla: ¿por qué callas? ¿qué recelas?
while in Garcilaso’s line ([p. 72], l. 1)
Casi los paso y cuento unò á ùno
the hiatus marks the deliberation with which the act is performed.
(4) When two accented vowels come together, the hiatus is much more pleasing than the synalœpha; Herrera:
¡Oh yà ìsla católica potente!
But synalœpha is tolerable when the second accent does not coincide with the end of the clause or with a necessary rhythmical accent; Herrera:
¿Qué áspera condición de fiero pecho?
Quintana:
Será alma sin amor ni sentimiento.
N.B.—In Old Spanish poetry hiatus prevailed and synalœpha was less common. Cf. F. Hanssen, Notas á la prosodia castellana (cited above).
METRE
In general the metre of a Spanish poetical composition is regulated by its pauses, accents, rhyme and, in most cases, its strophic arrangement.
I. Pauses.—Of these there are three kinds:
(1) the pausa mayor, or chief pause, ending the strophe;
(2) the pausa media, or pause of moderate duration, separating the larger symmetrical parts of a strophe;
(3) the pausa menor, or slight pause, separating one verse from another.
The pausa mayor generally coincides with the end of a sentence, or at least (as in sonnets, octaves, etc.) with that of the larger members or clauses of a sentence. The pausa media is more varied in its distribution, since perfect symmetry and continual uniformity would make the metre monotonous. The pausa menor should generally coincide with a break in the thought, but enjambement, or the violent carrying over of the thought from one line to another, is not unknown; cf. [p. 97], l. 14.
II. Accents and Rhythm.—The regular recurrence of accents in a verse gives it its rhythmical character. The rhythmical divisions of a Spanish verse are, as a rule, either dissyllabic or trisyllabic. When dissyllabic and accented on the first syllable, they are called trochaic:
Dìme | puès, pas|tòr ga|rrìdo.
When dissyllabic and accented on the second syllable, they are iambic:
¿A dón|de vàs, | perdì|da?
When trisyllabic and accented on the first syllable, they are dactylic; Moratín:
Sùban al|cèrco de Olimpo lu|ciènte.
When trisyllabic and accented on the second syllable, they are amphibrachs; Mena:
Con crìnes | tendìdos | ardèr los | comètas.
When trisyllabic and accented on the third syllable, they are anapæsts; Iriarte:
De sus hì|jos la tòr|pe avutàr|da.
The terms given marked in Latin a quantitative division into feet, while in Spanish they denote only accentual conditions.
A syllable may be lacking at the end of a verse (then called catalectic); trochaic:
Yà los | càmpos | òrna A|bril;
in one of amphibrachs:
Derràma | su páli|da lùz;
dactylic:
Hìnche los | àires ce|lèste armo|nía;
dactylic with two syllables lacking:
Sè oye á lo | lèjos tre|mèndo fra|gòr.
In an iambic or an anapæstic verse, there may be one or two unaccented syllables in excess; in a verse of trochees or amphibrachs, one:
¿A dón|de vàs | perdì|da?
Suspì|ra el blàn|do cé|firo.
Sacudièn|do las sèl|vas el á|brego.
Tiènde el | mànto | nòche | lóbre|ga.
El nìdo | desièrto | de míse|ra tórto|la.
But all verses are not subjected rigorously to rhythmical division according to the types explained. In trochaic and iambic verses not exceeding eight syllables in length xxxiii and not intended for singing, no accent is obligatory except that of the last division (or foot). The rhythmical nature of the composition then depends upon the regular recurrence of this final accent.
Not all accents satisfy the rhythmical requirements in a verse. Insufficient accents are those of the prepositions that have one (contra, para, etc.), those of the demonstratives before their nouns, those of the forms of the indefinite article (the definite article has none), those of monosyllabic adverbs before the words that they modify (bien alojado, etc.). Moreover, the verse is impaired when a strong, accidental accent precedes immediately a necessary accent, as in Mis ruegos cruèl òye.
Cæsura.—In the longer verses, a necessary pause or break in a determined place is called the cæsura. The cæsura requires a strong accent on the word preceding it, and does not prevent synalœpha; Garcilaso:
¿Ves el furor | del animoso viento
Embravecido | en la fragosa sierra?
The different kinds of verse.—N.B. In naming Spanish verse forms, all syllables, even those after the final accent, are taken into account.
The longest trochaic verse is the octosyllabic. In its typical form it has four accents, viz., on the first, third, fifth and seventh syllables:
Bràma, | bùfa, es|càrba, | huèle.
But only one of the rhythmical accents is necessary, viz., that on the seventh syllable; Heredia:
Ya tu familia gozòsa
Se prepara, amado pàdre.
For the purposes of singing, the third syllable should be stressed as well as the seventh.
Compositions in six-syllabled verses, with the accent on the fifth syllable (hexasyllables), may have the trochaic xxxiv metre, but are likely to intermingle the trochees with amphibrachs; e.g., Espronceda:
| Músicas lejànas; | Trochees. |
| De enlutado pàrche | |
| Redòble monótono; | Amphibrachs. |
| Cercàno huracán. |
Four-syllabled (tetrasyllabic) trochaic lines may accent the first and third syllables, but only the accent on the third syllable is requisite; Iriarte:
A una mòna
Muy taimàda
Dìjo un día
Cièrta urràca.
When it alternates with other longer verses, the four-syllabled trochaic is called the verso quebrado.
Iambics.—The longest iambic verse is the alexandrine of the French type. It has thirteen syllables and a central cæsura dividing it into hemistichs. The first hemistich may end in a stressed vowel or have an unaccented vowel after the stress, but in the latter case synalœpha must join the unaccented vowel to the following hemistich; Iriarte:
En cierta catedral | una campana había
Que sólo se tocaba | algún solemne día.
Con el más recio son, | con pausado compás,
Cuatro golpes ó tres | solía dar no más.
N.B.—When both hemistichs end in an accented vowel, the line has but twelve syllables. Sometimes the alexandrine adapts itself to the anapæstic metre, as in Iriarte:
Que despàcio y muy rècio | el dichòso esquilón.
At all events, the only necessary rhythmical accents are those on the sixth and the twelfth syllable. An older form of the alexandrine also existed (see below).
The eleven-syllabled iambic line is called the heroic xxxv verse, from its use in epics, or the hendecasyllable (see below).
The nine-syllabled iambic verse is of French origin. The perfect type, with accents on the second, fourth, sixth and eighth syllables, is seen in
No dè jamás mi dùlce pàtria
La nòble frènte al yùgo vìl.
Only the accent on the eighth syllable is necessary; e.g., Iriarte:
Tú, manguito, en invierno sìrves,
En verano vas á un rincón.
But in songs the fourth syllable should also be stressed.
The seven-syllabled iambic (the heptasyllabic or anacreontic verse) has a necessary accent on the sixth syllable; Villegas:
Quiero cantar de Càdmo.
The perfect type is seen in Villegas:
Las cuèrdas mùdo aprìsa.
In songs the fourth syllable is also stressed. Sometimes the anapæst supplants the iambic, e.g., Villegas:
Sólo cànta mi lìra.
In older Spanish, the alexandrine often consisted of two seven-syllabled iambic verses or half-lines, separated by the cæsura. There might be one or two unaccented syllables after the stressed sixth, and the unaccented syllables did not coalesce with the second half-line, since hiatus, rather than synalœpha, prevailed in Old Spanish; e.g., Berceo:
En esta romería | habemos un buen prado.
El fruto de los árbores | era dulze sabrìdo.
Some modern poets have imitated this alexandrine, avoiding the hiatus, however.
The five-syllabled (pentasyllabic) iambic verse has a xxxvi necessary stress on the fourth syllable. In this line the iambics easily yield to dactyls; e.g., Moratín:
El que inocente
La vìda pàsa
No necesìta
Morìsca lànza,
. . . . . .
Arcos ni aljàba
Llèna de flèchas.
Here, verses 2 and 4 are typical iambic pentasyllables, 1 and 3 have only the requisite accent on the fourth syllable, 5 and 6 are dactylic.
Dactylic verses.—There are examples of a dactylic hendecasyllable; Iriarte:
Cièrta criàda la càsa barría.
The dactylic octosyllable accents the first, fourth and seventh syllables:
Vuèlve la pàz á los hòmbres.
The trochaic octosyllable with the necessary accent of the seventh syllable often becomes dactylic; Meléndez:
Tòdo os adòra en silèncio.
On the dactylic pentasyllable or adonic verse, see below.
Amphibrachs.—Of a single foot are these verses of Espronceda:
Suspìra
La lìra
Que hirió
En blàndo
Concènto, etc.
But Bello objects to considering these short lines as individual verses.
Twelve-syllabled (dodecasyllabic) amphibrachs were xxxvii formerly of much use and were called versos de arte mayor; e.g., Mena:
El cònde y | los sùyos | tomàron | la tièrra
Que estàba en|tre el àgua | y el bòrde | del mùro.
A cæsura divides the line into hemistichs. Properly there should be four accents, viz., on the second, fifth, eighth and eleventh syllables; but the accents of the second and eighth syllables may be lacking.
The cæsura may come immediately after the accented syllable; Mena:
Entràndo tras él | por el àgua decían,
and it may permit of two unaccented syllables before it, though in this case the second hemistich has only five syllables; Mena:
Ni sàle la fúlica | de la marìna.
This and the further fact that synalœpha may occur between the hemistichs; Mena:
Con mùcha gran gènte | en la màr anegàdo,
prove that the two hemistichs really form one verse and not two verses. Still, at times, the cæsura marked an absolute break in the verse, e.g., with hiatus; Mena:
Ya puès, si se dèbe | en èste gran làgo
Guiarse la flota.
Again the first syllable may be lacking in the first amphibrach; Mena:
Mièntras morían | y mièntras matàban.
The nine-syllabled amphibrach is illustrated in Espronceda’s Estudiante de Salamanca:
Y luègo el estrépito crèce
Confùso y cambiàdo en un sòn, etc.
The six-syllabled amphibrach accents the second and fifth syllables in its perfect type; Moratín:
Ropàjes sutìles
Adòrno le sòn,
Y en èllos duplìca
Sus lùces el sòl.
But in pieces of more familiar import, the first accent may be lacking; e.g., Samaniego:
Plumas, sombrerètes,
Lunàres y rìzos
Jamás en su adòrno
Fueron admitìdos.
Here the first and fourth verses have only the accent of the fifth syllable.
Anapæsts.—These are most common in the verse of ten syllables, with three necessary accents; Iriarte:
Escondìdo en el trònco de un árbol.
Anapæsts are found also in the verse of seven syllables, though this is usually iambic; Meléndez Valdés:
Yo también soy cautìvo;
También yò, si tuvièra
Tu piquìto agradàble,
Te diría mis pènas.
The iambic hendecasyllable or heroic verse.—This ordinarily has eleven syllables, but it may end in an accented syllable and have only ten (verso agudo), or it may have two unaccented syllables at the end, and in such a case will have twelve syllables (verso esdrújulo). The latter two forms are always introduced into a composition according to some design. The typical form with five accents is rare:
Cayó, y el sòn tremèndo al bòsque atruèna.
All these accents are not necessary, but one of two main schemes of accentuation must be followed; viz., the accents must come on the sixth and tenth syllables, or else on the fourth, eighth and tenth; Rioja:
Campos de soledàd, | mustio collàdo.
Mora:
Sube cual àura | de oloròso inciènso.
In the second scheme the cæsura properly comes after the stressed fourth or the unstressed fifth syllable.
Sapphic verse.—The sapphic is a hendecasyllable which requires that certain accents be present and that certain syllables be short. The full requirements are:
(1) accents on the fourth, eighth and tenth syllables as in a heroic of the second scheme;
(2) an accent on the first syllable;
(3) that the second and third syllables be short;
(4) that the sixth, seventh and ninth syllables be short;
(5) that the first hemistich end in a word stressed on the penult;
(6) that there be no synalœpha at the cæsura; e.g., Villegas:
Dùlcĕ vĕcìno | dĕ lă vèrdĕ sèlva.
Requirements [1], [4] and [5] must be met; the others may occasionally be neglected, thus the accent of the first syllable is lacking in Villegas:
Vital aliènto | dĕ lă màdrĕ Vènus.
Every sapphic is a good heroic hendecasyllable, but not all heroic hendecasyllables are good sapphics, since the latter are heroics subjected to certain conditions.
Adonic verse.—This is a five-syllabled (pentasyllabic) line of dactyls, in which it is required that the first and fourth syllables be accented, and that the second and third be short; cf. [p. 177]:
Céfĭrŏ blàndo.
Dìlĕ quĕ muèro.
It is really the first hemistich of a sapphic, and in strophic arrangement the two are always associated; cf. the ode of Villegas, [p. 177]. The strict laws of the sapphic and adonic are sometimes infringed.
III. Rhyme.—There are two kinds of rhyme; consonantal rhyme, in which both the consonants and the vowels agree (donde—responde), and assonance, in which the vowels alone agree and the consonants are disregarded (muero—puerto). In consonantal rhyme both the consonants and the vowels should agree exactly: sabio—labio, orgánica—botánica. Still, as b and v represent the same sound, they may rhyme together, acaba—esclava, recibo—cautivo.
A word should not form consonantal rhyme with itself; although, at times, a simplex is found rhyming with a derivative (precio—menosprecio) or two derivatives rhyme with each other (menosprecio—desprecio). Similar suffixes (verbal, substantival, adjectival, etc., -aba, -eza, -oso) should not rhyme together any more than can possibly be avoided. Adverbs in mente should not rhyme together. Words similar in sound and form, but distinct in sense, may rhyme: ama (“mistress”) and ama (“he loves”).
A series of assonances is offensive in verses having consonantal rhyme, as that in e—o in these four verses of Garcilaso:
El más seguro tema con recelo
Perder lo que estuviere poseyendo.
Salid fuera sin duelo,
Salid sin duelo, lágrimas, corriendo.
Words having a weak accent or none at all, e.g., the definite article and monosyllabic prepositions, should not appear in rhyme, unless, possibly, in jocose style.
Consonantal rhyme may extend to three or more words (as in sonnets, octaves, terza rima), but combinations of three successive rhymes are not very common. Occasionally xli inner rhyme is found (cf. the Latin leonine hexameter), as in Tirso’s El pretendiente:
Ya sabes que el objeto deseado
Suele hacer al cuidado sabio Apeles,
Que con varios pinceles, con distinta
Color, esmalta y pinta, etc.
As has been said, assonance excludes the rhyme of consonants and requires that of vowels alone, from the accented vowel on: clàro—mármol, blànco—amàron. But in words accented on the third last syllable (esdrújulos) or any syllable farther removed from the end (sobresdrújulos), the syllables between the accented one and the last unaccented one are disregarded; so, cándido—diáfano—párvulo—enviándotelos, all form a good assonance in à—o. In accented diphthongs and triphthongs, agreement of the vowels bearing the accent is the sole requirement: piàno—clàustro, ve—agraciéis. In unaccented diphthongs and triphthongs there is required only agreement of the strong vowels: càmbies—amàreis. Cf. the assonance in è—a in the second, fourth, sixth and eighth lines of this passage from a poem of Moratín’s:
¡Que desgracia!—La mayor
Que sucederme pudièra.
Si me quieras despachar.—
¿La pobre doña Vicènta,
Cómo está?—¿Cómo ha de estar?
Traspasada. Si quisièrais
Despacharme...—Sí, al momento
Iré, si me dais licència.
These main rules are to be observed:
(1) in words accented on the last syllable (agudos), the assonance is that of the accented syllable only, as in Zorrilla:
Abierto tiene delante
Aquel cajón singulàr
Hábilmente preparado,
Que, mitad cuna y mitàd
Barco, condujo en su seno
Al desdichado rapàz.
(2) words accented on the last syllable (agudos) cannot assonate with those accented on the penult (graves), on the antepenult (esdrújulos), or on any preceding syllable (sobresdrújulos).
(3) the assonance is of two vowels and no more in words accented on the penult (graves), on the antepenult (esdrújulos), or any preceding syllable (sobresdrújulos); cf. the assonance in ù—o in mùstio—fúlgido—púsoselo.
Penults may assonate arbitrarily with antepenults, but the effect is better when penults assonate with penults and antepenults with antepenults. But little use is made in rhyme of words accented on a syllable preceding the antepenult.
In the final unaccented syllable, as the result of an obscured pronunciation, i and u, if not in diphthongs, assonate as e and o respectively, e.g., cáliz—vàlle, débil—vèrde, Vènus—cièlo, espíritu—efímero. Possible assonances are, then, those in á, é, í, ó, ú (a difficult one), à—a, à—e, à—o, è—a, è—e, è—o, ì—a, ì—e, ì—o, ò—a, ò—e, ò—o, ù—a, ù—e, ù—o.
Because of the great difficulty that they present, continuous rhymed antepenults (esdrújulos) have not been much used. In strophic compositions, unrhymed antepenults may terminate certain lines occurring at regular intervals in the poem. Consonant rhyme should be avoided in assonanced poems. In modern Spanish, the assonance of alternate lines is the rule, and, if the composition is short, the one assonance may run all the way through it.
Blank verse.—Lines lacking both consonantal and vocalic rhyme occur and are called versos sueltos (blank verse). Into compositions in verso suelto consonantal rhyme may, however, enter, particularly at the end of the chief sections into which the subject matter is divided.
IV. Strophes.—The strophe is frequently of arbitrary length, though, when once the poet has fixed the particular measure of his strophe, he is supposed to maintain the same measure throughout his composition.
One of the more common forms is the romance strophe. This generally consists of four verses having the same number of syllables each (normally trochaic octosyllables), and having besides, in the alternate verses, an assonance which remains the same throughout the poem. Cf. on [p. 258] the Castellano leal of Rivas, and on [p. 148] the Romance of Lope de Vega.
The heroic romance strophe is that consisting of iambic hendecasyllables; Rivas:
Brilla la luz del apacible cielo,
Tregua logrando breve de la cruda
Estación invernal, y el aura mansa
Celajes rotos al oriente empuja.
The Anacreontic is a romance in seven-syllabled verses, dealing with matter of light import; cf., on [p. 211], Meléndez Valdés’s Á un ruiseñor. Romances in short lines of less than eight syllables are called romancillos; e.g.:
Blanca y bella ninfa
De los ojos negros,
Huye los peligros
Del hijo de Venus.
The distinguishing features of the romance are, then, (1) the assonance of the alternating lines, and (2) the greater or less pause occurring at the end of every fourth verse. An estribillo, or refrain, may occur at regular intervals in a romance; cf. [p. 124], La Conquista de Alhama, and [p. 184], Calderón’s Lágrimas. In older Spanish, the romance did not necessarily consist of strophes of four lines, but rather of shorter strophes having two lines only; cf. [p. 116], A caza va Don Rodrigo.
Compositions in seven-syllabled quatrains, dealing with matter of serious or mournful content, are called endechas; and if the last line of each quatrain is a hendecasyllable, they are called endechas reales; e.g.:
¡Ay! presuroso el tiempo
Póstumo, se desliza:
Ni á la piedad respetan
La rugosa vejez, la muerte impía.
The seguidilla is a stanza made up of lines of five and seven syllables arranged in two divisions. The first division consists of a quatrain of alternating seven-syllabled and five-syllabled verses, with the second and fourth verses in assonance. The second division, separated from the first by at least a moderate pause, is made up of three lines, the first and third of five syllables and in assonance, the second of seven syllables. The assonance may vary from stanza to stanza. Cf. Iriarte:
Pasando por un pueblo
De la montaña,
Dos caballeros mozos
Buscan posada.
De dos vecinos
Reciben mil ofertas
Los dos amigos.
Consonantal rhyme, as well as assonance, occurs in the endechas. In the other stanzas thus far described, assonance prevails, although consonantal rhyme is not excluded.
Of ancient as well as modern use is the strophe well illustrated in the Coplas of Jorge Manrique, cf. [p. 43]. (N.B. In the text, two independent stanzas are printed together as one stanza.) The scheme is that of a strophe of six trochaic verses with consonantal rhyme in the series a b c a b c; lines 1, 2, 4, 5 have eight syllables each, and lines 3 and 6 have four. Sometimes an extra syllable is xlv prefixed to the short lines, making them iambic in character; cf. [p. 43], l. 28, [p. 46], l. 8.
The letrilla is a strophic composition of short verses and varied structure. The peculiarity is a refrain (estribillo), recurring at regular intervals; cf. [p. 214], ll. 19 ff., [p. 221], ll. 23 ff. Sometimes there are two refrains that alternate.
The redondilla stanza is a quatrain of eight-syllabled verses (redondilla mayor)—and occasionally of shorter length, especially of six syllables (redondilla menor)—in which verse 1 stands in consonantal rhyme with verse 4, and verse 2 with verse 3; cf. [p. 131]. Occasionally the rhymes alternate; cf. [p. 226], ll. 23 ff.
The quintilla is a stanza of five verses and only two rhymes, the latter being so distributed that not more than two verses with the same rhyme ever come together; cf. [p. 95], León’s Vida del campo. The verses may be all of eight syllables, cf. [p. 196], Moratín’s Fiesta de toros, or of mingled hendecasyllables and seven-syllabled lines, cf. [p. 195].
The décima (cf. [p. 181]) is a stanza of ten lines, having four rhymes. The usual scheme for rhyme agreement is 1, 4, 5—2, 3—6, 7, 10—8, 9. In this scheme, a pause occurs at the end of the fourth verse.
The tercetos (borrowed from Italy and called in Italian terza rima) are stanzas of three verses—generally hendecasyllables—so constituted that each stanza is connected by rhyme with the following stanza. The rhyme scheme is as follows: a b a—b c b—c d c...d e d e. Cf. [p. 163] and [p. 193].
Canción (“song”) is a generic name for all lyric compositions. It is also used in a specific way to denote a poem of iambic hendecasyllables, generally intermingled with verses of seven and even of five syllables. Each line of the strophe stands in consonantal rhyme with some other. The poet constructs the typical strophe according to his fancy, but he must make all the others like it. A xlvi short envoi—usually addressed to the composition itself—may end the poem. Cf. [p. 70], ll. 7 ff., [p. 87], ll. 4 ff.
The octava rima, or octave, is an eight-lined stanza, generally of hendecasyllables, with consonantal rhyme according to the scheme a b a b a b c c. A pause usually occurs at the end of the fourth line, and frequently also at the end of the second and sixth lines. Cf. [p. 68], Boscán’s Octava rima. Examples of octaves in eight-syllabled trochaics and seven-syllabled iambics are also found. An older form of the octave was the so-called Copla (“stanza”) de arte mayor, a stanza containing eight lines of four amphibrachs (or twelve syllables) each, and rhyming according to the scheme a b b a a c c a;[2] cf. [p. 31].
2: As opposed to the term arte mayor, there was used that of arte menor, applied in general to any verse of not more than eight syllables in length.
The sonnet—a short poem of fourteen hendecasyllables—is of Italian origin and has the conventional Italian forms. It always consists of four divisions, i.e., two quatrains and two tercets, separated from one another by pauses. Two of the commonest arrangements of the rhymes are illustrated by Lope’s Á la nueva lengua, [p. 153], and his Mañana, [p. 152].
To the composition called versos sueltos, rules hardly apply. While it often consists of iambic hendecasyllables only, or of such verses mingled with seven-syllabled lines, it is really very free in form. Rhyme is only accidental in it; there is no fixed arrangement of verses of different lengths; the position of the pauses is wholly arbitrary. Cf. [p. 109], Figueroa’s Tirsi.
There are found other free compositions into which rhyme enters as an essential feature, but which are governed by no law regulating the number and the order of the various kinds of verse, or the distribution of the rhymes and the pauses. Of this class is the silva, composed of iambic hendecasyllables intermingled with seven-syllabled lines. Every verse is made to rhyme by the best xlvii versifiers; but occasionally some lines are left unrhymed; cf. [p. 157], Jáuregui’s Acaecimiento amoroso, and [p. 170], Rioja’s Á la rosa. There are also silvas with lines of eight syllables or less, having rhyme throughout, but no fixed order of verses; cf. the Cantilenas of Villegas on [pp. 175–6].
Many other and quite artificial forms exist, of which space forbids a description. Thus, there are the glosa, cf. [p. 82] and [p. 135], beginning with a text, a line of which enters into each of the stanzas expounding it; the letra, a poem with short verses and also of the nature of a gloss, cf. [p. 59]; the madrigal, elaborating a conceit in verses of mingled hendecasyllables and heptasyllables, such as those written by Gutierre de Cetina; cf. [p. 73].
Our text also presents examples of certain old forms, originally popular, such as the villancico and the serranilla; cf. [pp. 35] and [81]. In these the refrain is always an important element.
In more recent times, and especially since the advent of the Romantic Movement of the nineteenth century, the caprice of the poet has invented many forms, the arrangement of which is generally self-evident and need not be explained here.