FRENCH VERSE

French verse, as found in the classical writers, consîsts of lines in which the principal factor is the number of syllabies (loosely called pieds in French, as well as syllabes), and not, as in English, the number of accents.

The u heroic verse," or grand vers in French, is the hexamètre, or vers alexandrin : the former name being due to the fact that this line consists of two halves or hémistiches of six syllables each ; the latter a name derived from the poet Alexandre de Bernay, who, in the latter half of the twelfth century, first used this mètre in his celebrated epic of " Alexandre."

E.g., Esth. 1. 2. : Que béni soit le ciel || qui te rend à mes vœux} Lyric poetry may hâve lines of any number of syllables. E.g., Esth. 1. 1241 : Rompez vos fers 4 sylls.