Instead of the syllable-measuring quantity, we now have the emphasising
accent; the rhyme, one of the most important lyrical contrivances--and
in its near approach to music the most striking characteristic of modern
lyrical poetry as compared with the antique--reaches perfection together
with the complete, evenly-recurring verse which is still to-day peculiar
to lyrical art. The poems of many of the troubadours pulsate with
passionate life, and bear no trace of the traditional or the
conventional. The martial songs of Bertrand de Born stride along with a
rhythm reminiscent of the clanking of iron. I quote the first verse of
one of these:
Le coms m'a mandat e mogut
Per N'Arramon Luc d'Esparro,
Qu'eu fassa per lui tal chanso,
On sian trenchat mil escut,
Elm e ausberc e alcoto
E perponh faussat e romput.
The count he sent to me one day
Sir Arramon Luc d'Esparro;
A song I was to make him--so
That thousand shields with ring and stay
And mail and armour of the foe
To fragments shivered in dismay.
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