_Tout révèr(e) à genoux_, ||

reducing the seven syllables of the former to a correct hemistich.


CAESURA.

Between the two hemistiches of an hexameter there must be a pause,
called _la césure_, or 'caesura.'


RHYME.

French poetry being less rhythmical than English, owing to the absence
of strong word-accents, makes up the deficiency by much greater stress
on rhyme. In French verse, rhyme not only is almost indispensable, but
must, in a measure, satisfy the eye as well as the ear. For instance,
words ending in 's' 'x' or 'z' can only rhyme with words also ending in
one of these three letters. Hence, the use of such obsolete forms as
_voi_ for _vois_ (ll. 890, 947); the latter could not rhyme with _moi_
or _roi_.

French rhymes are called "feminine" when they have a 'mute e' in or
after their last sounded syllable; e.g., _descendue_, _mémoire_,
_armées_, _coururent_, _cabales_, _assassinaient_ are feminine rhymes.
In all other cases they are called 'masculine' rhymes.

In heroic verse the masculine and feminine rhymes are generally found
in alternating pairs. In lyrics, however, they are freely crossed, but
with this restriction, that one rhyme of either kind is never found