SUCCESSION OF RHYMES
A masculine line cannot be followed immediately by another masculine line of a different consonance ; the same rule applies to feminine lines. In other words, four masculine, or four feminine lines, can never follow in succession.
A poem can begin either with a masculine or a feminine rhyme. After the first line is formed, the following different combinations may take place.
1st. The regular rhymes (rimes suivies) are those in which two masculine lines are followed by two feminine.
C’est en vain qu'au Parnasse un téméraire auteur
Pense de l’art des vers atteindre la hauteur :
S'il ne sent point du ciel l'influence secrète,
Si son astre en naissant ne l’a formé poéte,
Dans son génie étroit il est toujours captif;
Pour lui Phébus est sourd, et Pégase est rétif. Boileau.
2d. Intermixed rhymes (rimes croisées) present alternately a masculine and a feminine line.
En prose, en vers Lubin compose,
Et je ne sais par quel travers
Il met trop de vers dans sa prose,
Et trop de prose dans ses vers. P. Lebrun.
The same designation is given to two masculine lines separated by two feminine, and vice versa.
Aidons-nous mutuellement ; La charge des malheurs en sera plus légère; Le bien que l’on fait à son frère Pour le mal que l’on souffre est un soulagement. Florian.
La Mort ne surprend point le sage ; Il est toujours prêt à partir, S’étant su lui-même avertir Du temps où l’on se doit résoudre à ce passage. La Fontaine.
td
3d. Mixed rhymes (rimes mêlèes) are lines which are in unequal number.
Quel astre a nos yeux vient de luire?
Quel sera, quelque jour, cet enfant merveilleux ? Il brave le faste orgueilleux, Et ne se laisse pas séduire À tous ses attraits périlleux. J. Racine.
4th. Repeated rhymes (rimes redoublées) present the continuation of the same rhyme.
Un sot par une puce eut l'épaule mordue.
Dans les plis de ses draps elle alla se loger.
Hercule, ce dit-il, tu devrais bien purger
La terre de cette hydre au printemps revenue !
Que fais-tu, Jupiter, que du haut de la nue
Tu n’en perdes la race, afin de me venger ?
Pour tuer une puce, il voulait obliger
Les dieux à lui prêter leur foudre et leur massue. La Fontaine.
5th. French poetry admits also of whole mono-rhymed pieces : that is to say, pieces in which the author has adopted but one rhyme for all his lines.
Un pauvre clerc du parlement, Arraché du lit brusquement
Comme il dormait profondément, Gagne l'étude tristement ;
Y griffonne un appointement,
Qu'il ose interrompre un moment, Pour déjeuner sommairement ;
En revanche, écrit longuement,
Dine à trois heures sobrement.
Sort au dessert discrètement, Reprend la plume promptement Jusqu’a dix heures... seulement ; Lors va souper légèrement,
Grimpe, et se couche froidement Dans un lit fait négligemment,
Dort, et n’est heureux qu’en dormant.
Ab! pauvre clerc du parlement! Collin d’Harleville,
Rhyme, as has already been mentioned, is essential to French poetry. Without it, poetry no longer exists. For instance :
Où me cacher? Fuyons dans la nuit infernale.
Mais que dis-je ? mon père y tient l’urne fatale:
Le sort, dit-on, l’a mise en ses sévères mains ; Minos juge aux enfers tous les pales humains.
Instead of fatale, write funeste, and “ “ humains “ mortels.
Où me cacher? Fuyons dans la nuit infernale. Mais que dis-je? mon père y tient l'urne funeste: Le sort, dit-on, l’a mise en ses sévères mains ; Minos juge aux enfers tous les pales mortels.
However poetical this extract may be, what would become of its cadence and harmony when despoiled of the music of rhyme ?
In French, blank verse is an impracticability.
HIATUS AND ELISION.
In French poetry the e mute is the only vowel that can be followed by another vowel or À mute. Except in those cases the meeting of two vowels forms what is called an hiatus, and must be carefully avoided. Tw es, tu auras, si elle vient, i y est, is not allowed in verses.
The e mute ending a word, and followed by another vowel, is not reckoned in the measure of a line, and causes elision.
Isméne est auprès d’elle, Ismène, toute en pleurs, La rappelle à la vie, ou plutôt aux douleurs. Racine.
This verse is scanned as if it were written : Ismén’ est auprès del? Ismène tout en pleurs, etc.
Poetry agrees in that respect with the pronunciation of prose. The elision of the e mute ending a word, takes place also whenever the following word begins by an À mute.
Largent en honnête homme érige un scélérat. Boileau. But it does not take place when the is asperated.
Je jure hautement de ne la voir jamais. Molière,
POETICAL LICENSE. 209
POETICAL LICENSE.
Poetical license is a violation of rule; it is an irregularity allowed only in favor of number, harmony, rhyme, or the elegance of the lines.
There are three sorts of license :
Ist. As regards Orthography.
2d. sé Grammar.
8d. “ Construction.
License of Orthography.
According to their convenience poets retain or discard the s in
COPE eus sus certes.
Grace. graces, (à.) CURE sance guères.
Jusque ss ss ss jusques.
Mème.....,....... memes.
Athen so esse sens se Athènes.
Londre............ Londres.
Charle............ Charles, &c.
And in the first person of verbs they write Je voi, instead of je vois, Je croi “ “ je crois, Je reçoi “ “ je reçois, in order to make them rhyme with moi, loi, &c. Sometimes encor is written instead of encore ; and up to the middle of the 17th century, avecque instead of avec.
License of Grammar.
The adverb où is often used for à qui, auquel, à la quelle, vers lequel. This substitution strengthens the style, and facilitates concision.
C’est la l'unique étude où je veux m’attacher. Boileau, 18*
Sometimes the prepositions en, dans, are employed instead of à before the name of a city beginning with a vowel, in order to avoid the hiatus.
Je serai marié, si l'on veut, en Alger. Corneille.
French poetry admits of a verb in the singular number, agreeing with several subjects.
L'un et l’autre aussitôt prend part à son affront. Boileau.
Poets are at liberty to dispense with a pronoun at the beginning of a second part of a phrase, even should the subject be remote.
Je condamnai les dieux, et, sans plus rien ouir, Fis vœu sur leurs autels de leur désobéir. Racine.
License of Construction.
In French prose, the construction of words is formed according to a fixed and uniform method, from which there can be but little deviation. It proceeds according to logical order, and successively places the subject or nominative, the verb, the regimen or complement of the verb, the complement of the regimen, &c. It very seldom allows the subject after the verb; scarcely ever the regimen before the verb; never the complement of the regimen before the verb.
One of the charms of French poetry consists in the liberty it enjoys of modifying the above order; in other words, employing inversion.
As inversion is one of the most striking points in which French poetry differs from prose, and at the same time the most difficult for the student, it is as well to recapitulate first the inversions allowed in prose.
1st. After the relative pronoun, the verb can be put before its subject: Le cheval que montait mon frére—Les dépenses qu’a occasionnées votre luxe. This may also take place after a cireumstance of place or time: Le siècle où vivait César—A deux heures arriva la nouvelle.
2d. The verb is preceded by its direct regimen, if that regimen bea pronoun. Je la vois—Le bruit que j'entends.
3d. The remote complement of a verb may precede it: Suivant l'opinion commune, à est mort en Italie.
POETICAL LICENSE. 211
Some verbs may be preceded by their nearest complement, namely, by the one that is indispensable for completing the sense of the word which it accompanies. Such are: ajouter, répondre, succéder, opposer: A ces observations mon maître en ajouta plusieurs autres.
4th. Sometimes, but rarely, the attribute can be placed before the subject in phrases like this: Bien fou sera celui qui...
It is only in the above cases that prose can deviate from acknowledged rules. The following are those in which French poetry has a greater liberty.
5th, When a verb requires another verb to be used in the infinitive mood, the pronoun which is the regimen of the second verb, is more elegantly placed before the two verbs, instead of being inserted between: in prose is written, je veux le voir ; in poetry, je le veux voir.
Ce terme est équivoque : il Ze faut éclaircir. Boileau.
Oui, je Ze vais trouver, je lui vais obéir. Voltaire.
6th. In prose, the personal pronoun united to the imperative mood, is always placed after the verb. In poetry it can be put before by using me, te, &c., instead of moi, toi, &ce. However, this construction happens only in the second part of a phrase, and after one of the conjunctions ef, ow. Instead of, et laisse-toi conduire, may be said, et te laisse conduire.
Polissez-le sans cesse, et le repolissez. Boileau
Tu veux servir : va, sers, et me laisse en repos. Racine.
But the most frequent transposition, and the one that presents the greatest difficulty to the beginner, is the following:
7th. It is allowed to place the preposition and its complement before the substantive, adjective, or verb, that governs them.
Que les temps sont changés! sitôt que de ce jour
La trompette sacrée annongait le retour,
Du temple, orné partout de festons magnifiques,
Le peuple saint en foule inondait les portiques ;
Et tous, devant l’autel avec ordre introduits,
De leurs champs dans leurs mains portaient les premiers fruits. Racine.
The true construction of which is:
Que les temps sont changés ! sitôt que la trompette sacrée annonçait le
retour de ce jour, le peuple saint inondait en foule les portiques du temple, orné partout de festons magnifiques; et tous, introduits avec ordre devant l'autel, portaient dans leurs mains les premiers fruits de leurs champs.
Inversion is not always required ; its use is regulated by the necessity of the measure, or the exigencies of harmony. Sometimes, however, it cannot be dispensed with, namely, when the thought or idea, distributed in a progressive manner, should end or conclude by the most striking trait. Poetry in such a case has a great advantage over prose, which could not borrow that happy graduation.
PROGRESSIVE READER
