Assonance is of two sorts: single assonance (asonante agudo), están—va—parar—jamás, etc.; and double assonance (asonante llano), cuentan—tierra—dejan or coronada—gasa—baña. In assonanced verse the assonanced words end the even lines. The odd are usually blank, though sometimes rimed. A voz aguda cannot assonate with a voz llana, but there is no objection to the introduction of voces esdrújulas into asonante llano. In this case only the stressed and the final vowels of the esdrújula are counted; for example, América assonances with crea. When diphthongs enter into assonance, the weak vowel is ignored: pleita assonances with pliega.
Assonance is not unknown in English, especially in popular or folk verse; but we generally regard it as a faulty rime. Thus in the British national anthem we read:
Send him victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the king!
"Over us" plainly assonates, rather than rimes, with "glorious," but this is dangerously close to doggerel. Assonance is unsuited to the genius of any language possessed of a rich vowel-system. This is evident to any one who has read Archbishop Trench's attempt to render Calderon's verse into English assonance.
STROPHES
I shall not attempt to list the innumerable verse-forms to be found in Spanish poetry, but shall only indicate the forms used by Espronceda in the selections contained in this volume. Some of these are fixed and conventional, and others are of his own contrivance. Spanish uses the terms estrofa and copla to designate an arrangement of verses in a stanza. Copla must not be confused with English "couplet." These are general terms; most verse-forms are designated by special names. The following verse-forms are found in the selections contained in this book:
"EL ESTUDIANTE DE SALAMANCA"