The same procedure is employed with lines of any length, but the poem is not then called canción. For strophes in 10-syllable lines, see p. 199; in 8-syllable lines, pp. 16, 51, 83, 151; in 7-syllables, p. 202.
(9) The silva is a free composition of 11-and 7-syllable lines. Most of the lines rime, but without any fixed order, and lines are often left unrimed. See pp. 46, 54, 152, 214 (bottom), etc. A similar freely riming poem in lines of seven syllables is Villegas' Cantilena (p. 17).
(10) The Asclepiadean verse (p. lxviii) and the Sapphic (p. lxiv) and Alcaic (p. lxix) strophes have already been described. These may be rimed, or in blank verse.
(11) Numerous conventional names are given to poems for some other characteristic than their metrical structure. Thus a glosa (gloss) is a poem "beginning with a text, a line of which enters into each of the stanzas expounding it." A letra may be a short gloss. The name letrilla is applied sometimes to a little poem in short lines which may be set to music (p. 9), and sometimes to a strophic poem with a refrain (p. 16). A madrigal is a short silva upon a light topic, an expanded conceit. The term cantilena is given to any short piece of verse intended to be set to music (p. 17). Serranillas, in which is described the meeting of a gentleman with a rustic maiden, are famous for the examples written by Juan Ruiz and the Marquis of Santillana. A villancico is a popular poem with a refrain, usually dealing with an episode celebrated in a church festival (p. 13).
III. Versos sueltos, libres or blancos (blank verse) are formed, as in English, of 11-syllable lines, with occasionally a shorter line thrown in. There is no rime, but sometimes a couplet may mark the close of an idea. See pp. 38 and 144, and cf. also p. lx.