Syllabic Verse
In syllabic verse, such as that used in French literature, an alexandrine is a line of twelve syllables. Most commonly, the line is divided into two equal parts by a caesura between the sixth and seventh syllables. Alternatively, the line is divided into three four-syllable sections by two caesuras.
The dramatic works of Pierre Corneille and Jean Racine are typically composed of rhyming alexandrine couplets. (The caesura after the 6th syllable is here marked || )
- Nous partîmes cinq cents ; || mais par un prompt renfort
- Nous nous vîmes trois mille || en arrivant au port
- (Corneille, Le Cid Act IV, scene 3)
Baudelaire's Les Bijoux (The Jewels) is a typical example of the use of the alexandrine in 19th-century French poetry :
- La très-chère était nue, || et, connaissant mon cœur,
- Elle n'avait gardé || que ses bijoux sonores,
- Dont le riche attirail || lui donnait l'air vainqueur
- Qu'ont dans leurs jours heureux || les esclaves des Mores.
Even a 20th-century Surrealist, such as Paul Éluard, used alexandrines on occasion, such as in these lines from L'Égalité des sexes (in Capitale de la douleur) (note the variation between caesuras after the 6th syllable, and after 4th and 8th):
- Ni connu la beauté || des yeux, beauté des pierres,
- Celle des gouttes d'eau, || des perles en placard,
- Des pierres nues || et sans squelette, || ô ma statue
Read more about this topic: Alexandrine
Famous quotes containing the word verse:
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—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)