The Ballad of the White Horse is also considered a Roman Catholic allegory. Chesterton incorporates a significant amount of philosophy into the basic structure of the story. The poem consists of 2,684 lines of English verse. They are divided into stanzas, typically consisting of 4 to 6 lines each. The poem is based on the ballad stanza form, although the poem often departs significantly from it. Types of metrical feet are used more or less freely, although there is often basic repetition in a line. The rhyme scheme varies, often being ABCB or ABCCCB. Prefatory Note Chesterton begins his work with a note (in prose) declaring
Syllabic verse "flowers" (a w-glide) as 1. Because these lines are longer, irregular, and frequently enjambed ("as the / dead fountains"), it is quite clear that the symmetry of syllables is not meant to be audible. Moore's use of end-rhyme is telling. Only 2 lines in each stanza are rhymed: these are "emphasized" for the reader by indentation, but "hidden" from the listener by radical enjambment ("fawn- / brown" and "coxcomb- / tinted"). Elizabeth Daryush, known for her use of syllabic verse, used the quaternion form for her celebrated syllabic verse poem 'Accentedal'. The modern French language does not have a significant