A Treasury for Mélodie

Structure of French Verse

The rules governing the structure of French verse have been written down in such books as Ronsard's Abrégé de l'art poétique français and de Banville's Petit traité de poésie française. They are sufficiently different from, and more elaborate than, those used in English to warrant a brief introduction. Even though in the nineteenth century the romantic movement reacted against many of the constraints set by these rules, there is still a style of poetic language used in verse which differs from that which is commonly spoken.

Syllabic value of the vers

Unlike the English metric verse, the length of each line or vers in French verse is determined by the number of syllables in that vers. This can range from just a single syllable, which is unusual, to twelve, which is very common and known as the alexandrine.

Verlaine's Chanson d'automne has two vers of four syllables followed by one of three:

Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l'automne
Blessent mon cœur
D'une langueur
Monotone

and the following text by Ronsard is written in alexandrines:

Rossignol, mon mignon, qui par cette saulaie
Va seule de branche en branche à jamais voletant.

The mute "e"

A mute e, or any mute syllable, at the end of a vers is not counted when determining the length of that vers. Nor is it counted if it follows an atonal vowel within a word, eg. tu joueras. If it follows a tonic vowel, as in all words ending in ée, ie, ue, eg. je prie, that word is not allowed within the vers unless the e can be elided. Such rules derive from old French pronunciation when the now mute syllables were enunciated. The Symbolists allowed such words before a consonant, but the e remains mute and is not counted in the length of the vers. Mute e's, as in the following line from Baudelaire's Le balcon:

Mère des souvenirs, maîtresse des maîtresses.

are of course very common before a consonant and are pronounced, counting towards the number of syllables in the line.

Elision

In French only a final e can be elided, ie. it is not pronounced and does not count to the length of the vers. Such an elision is obligatory in front of a vowel or a mute h. In front of a caesura a word may only end in an e if it is elided. We find the line:

Je te prie, || allons nous assoir

in Tristan l'Hermite's Le promenoir des deux amants.

Hiatus

Two vowels, one ending one word and the other beginning the next, eg. le feu et la flamme, have not been allowed in the the vers since the seventeenth century.

The rhyme

Assonance and dissonance are of course used in French verse, particularly in the twentieth century blank verse, which has no final rhyme.
A rhyme is termed masculine if the rhyming syllable is the final syllable of the rhyming word, eg. noir and soir, even if the word is a feminine noun, eg. la nuit and le puits.
A rhyme is termed feminine if the rhyming syllable is followed by a mute e, eg. voile and étoile. This mute e may be followed by the s of a plural or the nt of the a verb in the third person plural, eg. manifiques and portiques, meurent and pleurent. Such a word ending in ent may not be rhymed with words in which that syllable carries the tonic accent, eg. le vent.
A rhyme is termed sufficient if the rhyming vowel is followed by the same consonants, eg. plume and brume, but termed rich if the preceding consonants are also the same, eg. régler and cingler.

Grouping of rhymes

In search of variety, during the sixteenth century the rule of alternation of rhymes was established, in which masculine rhymes had to alternate with feminine rhymes. The following examples show some of the possible combinations.

Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d' été: M
Le grand soleil, complice de ma joie, F
Fera, parmi le satin et la soie, F
Plus belle encor votre chère beauté. M
Verlaine

Si vous croyez que je vais dire F
Qui j'ose aimer, M
Je ne saurais, pour un empire, F
Vous la nommer. M
Musset

Du Thrace magique, ô délire! F
Mes doigts sûrs font sonner la lyre. F
Les animaux passent aux sons M
De ma tortue de mes chansons. M
Apollinaire

Par Saint Giles, F1
Viens nous en, M
Mon agile F1
Alezan; M
Viens, écoute, F2
Par la route, F2
Voir la joute F2
Du Roi Jean. M
Hugo

While some great poets have allowed themselves to break the rule with success.

Calmes dans le demi jour M1
Que les branches hautes font, M2
Pénétrons bien notre amour M1
De ce silence profond. M2
Verlaine

Caesura

The caesura is a pause in the middle of the vers after a stressed syllable. In a vers of eight syllables, the position is variable. In one of ten it should fall after the fourth or fifth syllable and in the alexandrine it must fall after six, as in Apollinaire's Sanglots:

Notre amour est réglé || par les calmes étoiles
Or nous savons qu'en nous || beaucoup d'hommes respirent
Qui vinrent de très loin || et sont un sous nos fronts.

But the rule is now flexibly applied, with several ceasurae being allowed in any line.