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
Blank verse "The Watershed" and John Betjeman's "Summoned by Bells". A complete listing is impossible, since a sort of loose blank verse has become a staple of lyric poetry, but it would be safe to say that blank verse is as prominent now as it has been any time in the past three hundred years. The largest English poems as "The Fall of Nineveh" by Edwin Atherstone and "King Alfred" by John Fitchett are written in blank verse. In Germany blank verse was used by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in the tragedy "Nathan der Weise" ("Nathan the Wise"): Lines are 10 syllables long