FRENCH VERSIFICATION

Versification is the art of making verses, and of measuring them according to well established rules.

A verse is a line, the syllables of which are regulated by their number and their quantity, which makes them short or long.*

A precise knowledge of the syllabical quantity of words is necessary, not only to write, but also to read poetry understandingly, and to render its measure sensible to the hearer.

To scan a verse is to subdivide it methodically into all the syllables which enter into its composition.