a lid:
Ya nuestros acentos | el orbe se admire,
Y en nosotros[42] mire | los hijos del Cid;
Ya nuestros acentos | el orbe se admire,
Y en nosotros mire | los hijos del Cid.
(_Himno de Riego_: cf. p. 242)

[Footnote 42: Note in _nosotros_ the shifting of stress,
which the musical notation indicates clearly.]

Lines of fourteen and fifteen syllables with ternary
movement are never popular, and in artistic verse they
are exceedingly rare. Avellaneda used these measures in
_Soledad del alma_:

Sale la aurora risuena, de flores vestida,
Dandole al cielo y al campo variado color;
Todo se anima sintiendo brotar nueva vida,
Cantan las aves, y el aura suspira de amor.

Huyeron veloces--cual nubes que el viento arrebata--
Los breves momentos de dicha que el cielo me dio...
?Por que mi existencia, ya inutil, su curso dilata,
Si el termino ansiado a su espalda perdido dejo?

Some recent poets have attempted to write ternary
Alexandrine verse. Thus, the Peruvian poet, Jose S.
Chocano (1867-):

Los Estados Unidos, como argolla de bronce,
contra un clavo sujetan de la America un pie;
y la America debe, si pretende ser libre,
imitarles primero, e igualarles despues.
page lxxx
Imitemos ioh Musa! las crujientes estrofas
que en el Norte se arrastran con la gracia de un tren,
y que giren las rimas como ruedas veloces
y que caigan los versos como varas de riel.
(_La epopeya del Pacifico_)

STROPHES

There are certain conventional combinations of line and
rime known by special names. Those used in modern Spanish
may best be considered under the heads (I) Assonance, (II)
Consonantal Rime, and (III) No Rime.

I. (1) The _romance_ is the most characteristic and
national of all Spanish meters. The proper _romance_
consists of 8-syllable lines with assonance in alternate
lines[43] (cf. pp. 1-8, 42, etc.). The structure of the
_romance_ line has already been treated (p. lxi). In the
old _romances_ there was no division into stanzas, but
poets from the end of the sixteenth century on regularly
employ a pause after every fourth line, thereby creating
a series of quatrains (pp. 42, 60, etc.), except in the
drama (p. 19).

[Footnote 43: Historically, of i6-syllable lines, all
assonating.]

(2) Alternate assonance may be employed with lines of
any length. With 11-syllable lines the verse is called
_roma