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.