cted line of this type has a rhythmic accent
on the sixth syllable, or a rhythmic accent on the fourth
syllable (usually with syllabic stress on the eighth),
beside the necessary accent in the tenth position.
Generally the inner accent falls on the sixth syllable
approximately twice as often as on the fourth.
Y con diversas flores va esparciendo... (Leon)
Y para envejecerse florecieron... (Calderon)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cuna y sepulcro en un boton hallaron... (Calderon)
Se mira al mundo a nuestros pies tendido... (Zorrilla)
Logically, the close of the first phrase should coincide
with the end of the word that receives the inner rhythmic
accent, and this is usually so, as in:
?Que tengo yo, | que mi amistad procuras?... (Lope)
Son la verdad y Dios, | Dios verdadero... (Quevedo)
But in some lines the rhetorical and the rhythmic accents
do not coincide, as in:
... pero huyose
El pudor a vivir en las cabanas... (Jovellanos)
Del plectro sabiamente meneado... (Leon)
Que a mi puerta, cubierto de rocio... (Lope)
The 11-syllable line may be used alone. Cf. the sonnets of
Lope de Vega (p. 14) and Calderon (p. 18), the _Epistola
satirica_ of Quevedo (p. 15), the blank verse of
Jovellanos (p. 38) and Nunez de Arce (p. 144), _et al._
The neo-classic poets of the eighteenth century and some
of the earlier romanticists even used it in _redondillas_
or assonated: page lxiv
En pago de este amor que, mal mi gr=ado=,
Hasta el crimen me lleva en su del=irio=,
Y a no verse por ti menospreci=ado=
Mi virtud elevara hasta el mart=irio=...
?Por que de nuevo palida tristeza
Tus rosadas mejillas descol=o=r=a=?
?Por que tu rostro en lagrimas se inunda?
?Por que suspiras, nina, y te acong=o=j=a=s?
(Breton de los Herreros, _?Quien es ella?_)
But the poets of the Siglo de Oro and the neo-classic
poets generally used it in combination with 7-syllable
lines, as in Leon's verses:
iQue descansada vida
la del que huye el mundanal rueido,
y sigue la escondida
senda por donde han ido
los pocos sabios que en el mundo han sido!
Strophes of three 11-syllable lines and one 5-syllable
line (_versos saficos_) are not uncommon in highly lyric
poems. Usually, in the long lines, the inner accent falls
on the fourth syllable, with syllabic stress on the
eighth, and with cesura after the fifth syllable.
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