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
Tribrach (poetry) Oxford English Dictionary under 'Poetry Terms' lacks a formal definition, but does appear, primarily as a musical form, in some American dictionaries, such as Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary. Its appearance in English poetry is rare, as it tends to resolve into two disyllabic feet, depending upon the feet that surround it. Tribrach (poetry) A tribrach is a metrical foot used in formal poetry and Greek and Latin verse. In quantitative meter (such as the meter of classical verse), it consists of three short syllables; in accentual-syllabic verse (such as formal English verse), the tribrach consists of three unstressed syllables.