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
Line break (poetry) Beginning a line with an uppercase letter when the beginning of the line does "not" coincide with the beginning of a new sentence is referred to by some as "majusculation". (this is an invented term derived from majuscule). The correct term is a coroneted verse. In T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, where ambiguity abounds, a line break in the opening ("ll". 5–7) starts things off. Because the lines start with capitalized letters, Eliot could be saying "Earth" as the planet or "earth" as the soil. Line break (poetry) A line break in poetry is the termination of the line of