ruego mio deshizo su hielo.[11]

[Footnote 11: Apparently _trebol_ instead of _trebol_.
These lines are quoted by Eugenio Mele, in _La poesia
barbara in Ispagna_, Bari, 1910.]
page xlviii
Jose Eusebio Caro wrote similar hexameters, and, strange
to say, made alternate lines assonate:

iCefiro rapido lanzate! irapido empujame y vivo!
iMas redondas mis velas pon: del proscrito a los lados,
haz que tus silbos susurren dulces y dulces suspiren!
iHaz que pronto del patrio suelo se aleje mi barco!
(_En alta mar_)

The number of these direct imitations is large; but few
succeeded. They are, at best, foreign to the spirit of
Castilian poetry.

In singing Spanish verses two facts are of especial
interest: that, where the rules of prosody require
synalepha, hiatus sometimes occurs (especially in opera),
thus:

Recogete--ese panuelo.
(Olmedo, _Folk-lore de Castilla_, p. 133)

Y el pajaro--era verde.
(Ledesma, _Cancionero salmantino_, p. 53)

And that musical accents do not necessarily coincide with
syllabic stresses, even at the end of a phrase. Thus,

iCuantas veces, vida mia,
Te asomaras al balcon![12]

iCuerpo bueno, alma divina,
Que de fatigas me cuestas!

iBendiga Dios ese cuerpo,
Tan llenisimo de gracia!
(Hernandez, _Flores de Espana_)

[Footnote 12: The grave accent mark (`) indicates a strong
musical accent.]
page xlix

SYLLABICATION

In most modern Spanish verse there is a fixed number of
syllables in a line up to and including the last stressed
syllable.[13] In counting these syllables consideration
must be given to the following facts:

[Footnote 13: The number of unstressed syllables at the end
of a line is not fixed. See p. lvi.

In order to have the correct number of syllables, poets
sometimes (1) shorten a word or (2) shift the accent:

(1) ?Ya que mi puro _espirtu_ sucias carnes...
(Cabanyes, _A Cintio_)

(2) Puede querer...? _Abrale_...
(Zorrilla, _Don Juan Tenorio_, primeraa parte, III, 6)
Deben de ser _angeles_.
(Lope de Vega, _El mejor alcalde el rey_, II)

Note the artificial separation of lines in some dramatic
_romance_-verse:

... Soy un cate-
Cumeno muy diligente.
(Calderon, _El Jose de las mujeres_, II)

De una vil hermana, de un
Falso amigo, de un infame
Cri