El bla'nco ropaj'e que ondea'nte se ve',
Y cua'l si pisa'ra mulli'das alfo'mbras,
Deslí'zase le've sin rui'do su pie'.
Tal vi'mos al ra'yo de la lu'na lle'na
Fugiti'va ve'la de le'jos cruza'r
Que ya' la' hinche en po'pa la bri'sa sere'na,
Que ya' la confu'nde la espu'ma del ma'r.
The first of these stanzas has the true Byronic swing. But note how freely the rhythm is handled in the second. Spanish rhythm is so flexible and free that little practical advantage is gained by counting feet. We distinguish only two sorts of verse-measure, the binary, where in general there is stress on one syllable out of two—that is there are trochees (__' __) or iambics (__ __') in the verse, or the two intermingled—and second the ternary measure, where one of a group of three syllables receives the stress. Such a verse is made up of dactyls (__' __ __), anapests (__ __ __'), or amphibrachs (__ __' __), or some combination of these. Of course, a three-syllable foot is often found in binary verse, and, vice versa a two-syllable foot in ternary measure. By binary verse we mean only a form of verse in which the twofold measure predominates, and by ternary one in which the threefold measure predominates. The extract last quoted is an example of ternary verse. The following will serve as a specimen of the binary movement:
En de'rredo'r de u'na me'sa
Ha'sta se'is ho'mbres está'n,