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.: