Syllabic verse stress accent (as English does). This means that the French metric line is generally determined by the number of syllables. The most common metric lengths are the ten-syllable line ("décasyllabe"), the eight-syllable line ("octosyllabe") and the twelve-syllable line (the so-called "alexandrine"). Special syllable counting rules apply to French poetry. A silent or mute 'e' counts as a syllable before a consonant, but not before a vowel (where "h aspiré" counts as a consonant). When it falls at the end of a line, the mute "e" is hypermetrical (outside the count of syllables). Polish syllabic verse is similar to French. The
Poetry a rhythm. Classical Chinese poetics, based on the tone system of Middle Chinese, recognized two kinds of tones: the level (平 "píng") tone and the oblique (仄 "zè") tones, a category consisting of the rising (上 "sháng") tone, the departing (去 "qù") tone and the entering (入 "rù") tone. Certain forms of poetry placed contraints on which syllables were required to be level and which oblique. The formal patterns of meter used in Modern English verse to create rhythm no longer dominate contemporary English poetry. In the case of free verse, rhythm is often organized based on looser units of