-----Original Message-----
From: Robin Hamilton <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Aug 3, 2005 8:27 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: FW: any formalists in the crowd? -- thanks to Annie Finch!
>Probably from Chaucer originally (or his models) as he inttoduced it into
English from French where (I think) simple syllable-counting was more
rigorously enforced. As much as in Spanish? Mark will be more pertinent
than me on this.
The alexandrine (basic measure of French formal poetry) used to be four sets of three syllables in the pattern short short long, but that was rarely rigidly adhered to and beginning with Hugo and Baudelaire simply went out the window.
It's probably useful to remember that virtually all of our rhymed forms came into English from Romance languages, in which rhyme is ridiculously easy and variations in word order that would be considered inversions in English are perfectly acceptable.
Mark
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