La suspirada—constitución,

Y enarbolando—marcial pendón,

Á los leales—acaudilló...[34]

Footnote 34:[ (return) ]

It should be noted that these latter verses, like most Spanish patriotic songs, are sung with ternary movement, thus:

Èn las cabèzas—èl proclamò...

This 10-syllable measure is cantabile, and its phrases are too short and too regular to make good recitative verse.

Versos alcaicos differ from the asclepiadeos in that the former have, in a strophe, two lines of 5 + 5, one of nine, and one of ten syllables. Thus, in these lines of Victorio Giner (who probably introduced this strophe into Spain in the second half of the nineteenth century):

Y si los nautas, cantando el piélago,

Con remos hieren y espumas alzan,

Se aduerme á los ecos sus penas