FRENCH VERSIFICATION
The basic elements of French versification are syllable-count (le compte des syllabes), rhythm (le rythme) which results from stress (l’accent), rhyme (la rime) and stanza form (la forme strophique; la strophe = stanza).
The mute e in front of a consonant, which is not pronounced in prose, is usually pronounced in the reading of verse (e.g. une rose – prose: yn ro:z – verse: yna ro:z-).
In each case there is one more syllable in verse than in prose. (The mute e is never pronounced in the verb forms ending in –aient, -oient).
In the syllable-count, however, the mute e at the end of a word is elided when followed by a word beginning with a vowel or unaspirated h; nor is the mute e at the end of a line counted.
When any other vowel ending a word is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, hiatus is said to exist; this was forbidden by strict 17th Century doctrine, though the rule has rarely been exactly followed. Modern French poets would not hesitate to use it, particularly for special effect. In any case, hiatus occurs constantly within words (e.g. il tuait).
French verse lines are normally of six or twelve syllables, although since Laforgue lines of more than twelve syllables are not infrequent. Lines of less than four syllables are called vers pairs, if an odd number, vers impairs. The latter are rare and are reserved for special effects (see e.g. Baudelaire’s "L’invitation au voyage").
French verse contains various stresses, one of which always falls on the last syllable. As in prose the stress falls on the last syllable in a word group that is complete itself. In lines of ten syllables or more, one of the stresses is usually more marked than the others.
This strong stress marks the division of the line into two parts and this division is called the caesura (la césure).
The decasyllable (le décasyllabe) is usually cut 4/6, 6/4 or 5/5.
It is the alexandrine (l’alexandrin) or twelve syllable line ( so- called from a 12th Century poem entitled Le roman d’Alexandre) which occupies the place of importance in French versification; and owing to its length, it offers the greatest scope for variety of stress.
The caesura traditionally falls at the end of the sixth syllable, dividing the line into two halves or hémistiches.
In addition to the two main stresses on the sixth and twelfth syllables, there is usually a further stress in each hémistiche.
The variety of stress is thus very great: 3/3/3/3 is very common, but 2/4/2/4, 2/4/4/2, 4/2/2/4, 2/4/3/3, 1/5/4/2, 1/5/3/3, 4/2/1/5, etc., are all possible combinations. Strict doctrine required that the break at the caesura should be one of sense as well as sound, but, particularly from the early 19th Century onwards, poets tended to ignore this rule; in this way, as well as by placing strong stress on a syllable in the hémistiche other than the last one, the caesura was gradually weakened and the alexandrine became much more fluid.
Early 19th Century poets also made continual use of an alexandrine divided not into two but into three parts. This is called a trimètre, and here, too, the variety of accent is great, e.g. 4/4/4 (the most common), 3/4/3, 2/6/4, etc… Hugo’s poetry is full of trimètres. In some of these alexandrines a faint, vestigial stress on the sixth syllable still persists, but as the century grew older, so poets became bolder and alexandrines appear with no trace of a six-syllable hémistiche; sometimes the sixth syllable even fell on the weakest of all syllables, a mute e.
A factor other than recurrence of intensities (loudness or pitch), considered to be of capital importance in determining rhythm is the recurrence of equivalent durations or lapses of time.
Each alexandrine (the twelve-syllable line) will usually be divided into two hémistiches, as we have seen. These hémistiches will usually be divided yet again.
If our "bar" of words were timed on the metronome at 2 seconds, we should find that each half-line tended to balance the other at one second.
A "typical" line is:
Waterloo:/ Waterloo:// Waterloo:/ morne plaine:
3 syllables 3 syllables 3 syllables 3 syllables
½ second ½ second ½ second ½ second
Variations on this can be seen, for example, in "L’Expiration", vers 37-41:
Fuyards,/ blessés,/ mourants,// caissons,/ brancards,/
2 syllables 2 syllables 2 syllables 2 syll 2 syllables
1/3 second 1/3 second 1/3 second 1/3 second 1/3 second
civières
2 syllables
1/3 second
On s’écrasait/ aux ponts// pour passer/ les rivières
4 syllables 2 syllables 3 syllables 3 syllables
½ second ½ second ½ second ½ second
On s’endormait/ dix mille// on se réveillait/ cent
4 syllables 2 syllables 5 syllables 1 syllable
½ second ½ second ½ second ½ second
Ney/ que suivait naguère// une armée/ à présent
1 syllable 5 syllables 3 syll 3 syllables
½ second ½ second ½ second ½ second
S’évadait/ disputant// sa montre/ à trois cosaques
3 syllables 3 syllables 2 syll 4 syllables
½ second ½ second ½ second ½ second
The rhythm quickens or slows in relation to the greater or lesser number of syllables in the word group. This is just an indication of the importance of the duration of word groups in the creation of the rhythm of poetry.
French rhymes are classified as either masculine or feminine. Feminine rhymes are those ending in a mute e or a mute syllable. All other rhymes are masculine. The two sorts cannot rhyme together and normally there should never be more than two successive lines of either sort: this rule is known as the alternance des rimes. For a full rhyme (= une rime suffisante) there should normally be two elements of similarity, i.e. either a vowel preceded by a consonant (= la consonne d’appui), e.g. demi-ami, or a vowel followed by a consonant as in vide-ride.
Rhymes containing only one element, the vowel, not preceded by the consonne d’appui are termed rimes faibles, and, properly speaking, are not rhymes but assonances. Any rhymes containing more than the two minimum elements are termed rimes riches (e.g. puni-muni). Lines can, of course, be richer, with two or more additional elements, as in plier-peuplier, ouvrier-chevrier, etc...
Apart from rules, there exist certain customs regarding rhyme with the aim of making rhyming not too easy. Thus, no word should normally rhyme with itself or with a compound of the same stem, as in ordre-désordre; nor two compound words of the same root, such as devenir-parvenir, bonheur-malheur; nor words expressing similar or opposite ideas, such as douleur-malheur, chrétien-païen; nor words of hackneyed or obvious associations, such as gloire-victoire, songe-mensonge; nor two words of the same grammatical category, as beauté-bonté, trouvé-lavé, délibérer-pleurer, éclatant-important, aimable-agréable, magnifiquement-admirablement.
Such rhymes, however rich they may be, are described as banales, and though occasionally used by all poets, excessive use would suggest carelessness, laziness or incompetence. Another custom was to tolerate rimes insuffisantes only if they were not too infrequent and were not, at the same time, banales: e.g. bleu might rhyme with feu, but not haï with flétri, as these latter are two past participles.
The combination of rhymes is normally threefold: most common are rimes plates, successive pairs or alternately masculine or feminine rhymes, aabbcc, etc.; or rimes croisées, ababcdcd, etc.; or rimes embrassées, abbacddc, etc., the normal form of a quatrain of a sonnet.
The rime redoublée is found when the same rhyme occurs more than once in succession, as in aaaa.
Mixed combinations of rhymes form rimes mêlées: this occurs usually in poems or verses containing lines of different lengths. In free verse, assonance often replaces rhyme.
Another form of rhyme is internal rhyme. In this, words within a line may rhyme with other words in the next or adjacent lines, e.g. the word at the end of the first hémistiche might rhyme with the word similarly placed in the next line.
A similar effect, less marked but subtler and even more varied, can be achieved by alliteration and assonance. Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant, often, but not necessarily, at the beginning of a word, as in "murmure de la mer". Assonance is the repetition of the same vowel-sound, as in "je ne nie pas l’inattendu de ces idées", an assonance in i as well as an alliteration in n.
Alliteration and assonance can be used to create onomatopoeic effects in which sound reflects sense, but they are often used to create sound effects without any purpose of harmonie imitative.
ENJAMBEMENT
When the sense of one line is carried over to the next, there is enjambement, and the part of the sentence which is carried over is called the rejet. Enjambement can also occur at the caesura, thus weakening the symmetrical regularity of the line.
In either case, considerable effects of expression can be achieved. This prolongation of the line or of the hémistiche is a common practice in the 19th Century, increases rhythmic variety as well as being an excellent method of emphasising specific words.
A strophe is a group of lines (vers) forming a complete system of rhymes.
The most common stanza form is, no doubt, the four line one (le quatrain, la strophe de quatre vers).
Other names worthy of mention are:
The only modern fixed form poem (le poème à forme fixe) is the sonnet (le sonnet), whose fourteen lines are divided into two quatrains and two tercets, the first, traditionally, providing the exposition and argument, the second the conclusion, while the last line should be particularly striking.
The traditional rhyme-scheme (la disposition des rimes) of the French sonnet is abba abba ccd ede, but in the 19th Century these rules are often ignored; a break in sense is not always made after the quatrains, which are often in rimes croisées; the rhyme-schemes of the tercets, particularly of the last one, is altered, e.g. to eed: and instead of five rhymes, six or even seven are found. Baudelaire’s sonnets repay close study.