Ils étaient mille et sous leurs coups (Idylles Prussiennes, p. 48.) And also on feminine rimes, in the poem entitled Erinna: Et j'ai rimé cette ode en rimes féminines Laissât dans plus d'un cœur sa blessure saignante. (Les Exilés, p. 95.) The Symbolists have been the first to dare to ignore the rule of alternation whenever it suited their purpose. It follows from the character of their poetry that they prefer strophes written in feminine rimes exclusively: Elle dit, la voix reconnue, Bonheur d'une paix sans victoire, &c. (Paul Verlaine, Sagesse1, p. 43.) Feminine rimes are also used exclusively in La Brise en Larmes of Fernand Gregh (b. 1873), one of the most promising of living poets: Ciel gris au-dessus des charmes, Que sa caresse à ma bouche Vent qui flotte sur la plaine Avec les remous d'une onde, Doux vent qui sous le ciel sombre Erre comme une âme en peine (La Maison de l'Enfance, p. 65.) Such strophes are found, exceptionally, even in the sixteenth and seventeenth century: Sus debout la merveille des belles, (Malherbe, Euvres, i. p. 226.) The principle of the rule of alternation may also be said to have been broken by those few modern poets who have 1 Cf. also pp. 44 and 45 of Sagesse. rimed together practically homophonous masculine and feminine words1. XXIII. When rimes are coupled two by two they are called plates or suivies. Since the rule of alternation, the couplets are successively masculine and feminine, or feminine and masculine (a a, bb, cc, dd, &c.2): Oui, je viens dans son temple adorer l'Éternel; Je viens, selon l'usage antique et solennel, Où sur le mont Sina la loi nous fut donnée. Que les temps sont changés! Sitôt que de ce jour La trompette sacrée annonçait 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 portant les nouveaux fruits, Les prêtres ne pouvaient suffire aux sacrifices. (Racine, Athalie, i. 1.) XXIV. Rimes are called croisées when masculine verses alternate with feminine verses or vice versa (a bˇ a bˇ, &c., or a bab, &c.): Ils songeaient; ces deux cœurs, que le mystère écoute, Penchés, et s'y versant dans l'ombre goutte à goutte, (V. Hugo, Contemplations, i. p. 104.) XXV. In rimes embrassées, two feminine lines on the same rime are enclosed between two masculine lines on the same rime also; or two feminine rimes on the same rime enclose two masculine ones on the same rime (a bˇba, bˇa abˇ, &c.): J'ai bien assez vécu, puisque dans mes douleurs Puisqu'au printemps, quand Dieu met la nature en fête, Puisque je suis à l'heure où l'homme fuit le jour, Hélas! et sent de tout la tristesse secrète. (V. Hugo, Contemplations, ii. p. 30.) XXVI. In the so-called rimes redoublées, the same rime, masculine or feminine, is repeated more than twice: 1 Cf. ch. ii. p. 8. 2 The symbol indicates a feminine rime. Dans cette retraite chérie (Gresset 1.) XXVII. Rimes mêlées are such as follow only the general rule regarding the alternation between masculine and feminine lines, but are not subject to any of the rules that determine the above kinds of rime, as in A. de Musset's Rolla. XXVIII. If lines provided with rimes mêlées are at the same time of different length, they are known as vers libres. The earliest French vers libres occur in the works of Mellin de Saint-Gelais (1487-1558), and were probably written in imitation of Italian madrigals and pasquilli. But it was not till the seventeenth century that such verses appeared in any number, in the guise of madrigals and epistles, which were much favoured by the poets of the Hôtel de RambouilletSarrasin, Voiture, Pellisson, &c.-and other literary coteries of précieuses. At first this kind of verse was confined to the madrigal and epistle, and generally to that branch of poetry which the French call poésie enjouée. About the middle of the seventeenth century, however, we see it gain ground and gradually extend to other branches of literature. Segrais introduced it in the eclogue, Le Moyne in his Lettres Morales, the Marquis de Villènes in the Élégies Choisies des Amours d'Ovide, and Madame Deshoulières in her Idylles. Vers libres were also used about the same time by La Fontaine in some of the Contes and in nearly all the Fables, and have since remained the accepted verse for the fable. Other examples of vers libres or vers irréguliers, as they were sometimes called, are to be found in Corneille's Agesilas (1666), in Molière's Amphitryon (1668), and in the tragédieballet of Psyché (1671) by the two poets in collaboration. The choruses of Racine's Esther and Athalie can also be ranked in the same class. Free verses continued to be used in the eighteenth century, especially in the épître by Voltaire and other poets, and also in the fable by Florian (1755-94) and Jean Andrieux (1759-1833). Excepting the fable (Viennet, &c.), and a few isolated poems in A. de Musset's works-Silvia, Jeanne d'Arc, Le Songe d'Auguste-such verses have been completely eschewed by the Romanticists and their successors the Parnassiens. An example from Corneille follows: Cruel destin, fraeste inquiétude! Qu'avez-vous fait, affreuse solitude, J'aimais un Dieu, j'en étais adorée, Mon bonheur redoublait de moment en moment; Au milieu d'un désert, où, pour accablement, Je sens croître l'amour quand j'ai perdu l'amant. Sa douceur tyrannise un cœur infortuné Qu'aux plus cuisants chagrins ma flamme a condamné. Pourquoi me laisse-t-il l'amour qu'il m'a donné? Êtes-vous (Psyché, Act iv. Sc. 4.) XXIX. Vers libres have been largely used during the last ten or fifteen years by the Symbolists, or rather a ramification of the same school, which is known as the école vers-libriste. In the free verses of the classicists, and later in those of Voltaire, Andrieux, and A. de Musset, the choice of metre is not absolutely left to the poet: he must not, for example, place very short lines after very long lines, or combine lines which differ by only one syllable more or less. No such considerations are taken into account by the Vers-Libristes, and it is for that reason chiefly that their free verses, though they may occasionally be harmonious prose, cease to be French verses 1. The classicists, and those who have tried their hand at such verses after them, felt that syllabism, and 1 See Le Rythme Poétique (Paris, 1892) par R. de Souza, who shows (p. 199 sqq.) how such verse can be made by placing in succession the rhythmical periods of a sermon of Bossuet or a page of Flaubert. This would be still easier with Chateaubriand or any poet in prose. consequently number, was one of the fundamental conditions of French verse, and that, if it were lost sight of altogether, their vers libres would cease to be French verses at all. The Vers-Libristes have made their case still less defensible by weakening, and not infrequently totally effacing, the rôle of rime in these irregular verses1. An example is given from François Vielé-Griffin (b. 1864): Je leur dirai, Que rien ne pleure, ici, Et que le vent d'automne, aussi, Lui qu'on croit triste, est un hymne d'espoir; Que rien n'est triste ici, matin et soir, Si non, au loin, Lorsque Novembre bruit aux branches Poussant les feuilles au long des sentes blanches Elles fuient, il les relance Jusqu'à ce qu'elles tombent lasses, Alors il passe et rit Que rien n'est triste, ici, Si non, au loin, .sur l'autre côte, Monotone comme un sonant la même note, Le heurt des haches brandi tout le jour (Poèmes et Poésies, p. 195.) Apart from the objections already made, it is urged as a proof that these verses are not dictated by emotional necessity, that they would not lose, but rather gain, by being arranged thus: Je leur dirai, que rien ne pleure ici, Et que le vent d'automne, aussi, Lui qu'on croit triste, est un hymne d'espoir; Je leur dirai que rien n'est triste ici, matin et soir, &c. XXX. The changes which have taken place in French pronunciation explain many assonances and rimes which now appear incorrect, but which in their day were quite blameless. We shall only notice the principal ones in the O. F. period, but lay greater stress on those that affect the poets of the sixteenth century onwards: 1. In O. F. the succession ai (whether derived from tonic 1 Walt Whitman's irregular metres seem to have been the startingpoint of some of the vers-libristes. It should perhaps be stated that the group includes not only Belgians, Greeks, and others, but also Americans, of whom the two best-known are Vielé-Griffin and Stuart Merrill. |