Decasyllable

A decasyllable is a towards of ten Syllabe S.

In French Poetry, it was initially used in the epic Poésie, then it became one of the principal lyric worms as from the 13th century and this until 16th where the Alexandrin took little by little its place.

It is generally cut out asymmetrically into 4+6:

Femme I am // pauvrette and old,

Which nothing know; // oncques letter read.

With the moutier see // of which am parish

painted Paradis, // where are toothing-stone and lutes,

And a // hell where damnés are boullus

One makes me fear, // the other joy and jubilation.

the joy of having make me, high Goddess,

To which all sinning must resort,

Comblés faith, // without pretense nor idleness:

In this faith // I want to live and die.

(Villon, Ballade to request Notre-Dame )

One sees in this example that this cutting hesitates with form 6+4.

One finds also cuttings 5+5:

the hunger makes dream // the large morose wolves;

the river runs, // the cloud flees;

Behind the // pane where the lamp shone,

the // small children has pink heads.

(Hugo, Things of the evening )

Such a rate/rhythm makes easily popular, childish, pleasant: see for example the Society man of Voltaire (1736). But it could be used in very lyric parts:

We will have // beds full with light odors,

Of the deep couches // like tombs,

And strange // flowers on racks,

Écloses for us // under more beautiful skies.

(Baudelaire, the Death of the Lovers )

Another famous poem written in decasyllable is the marine Cemetery of Paul Valéry.

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