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The basis for the following remarks on Spanish prosody is, for the most part, E. Benot's Prosodia Castellana y Versification, 3 vols., Madrid, 1892. Other works which have been consulted are the Ortologia y Arte Metrica of A. Bello, published in his Obras Completas, vol. 4, Madrid, 1890; Rengifo's Arte Poètica Española, Barcelona, 1759; J. D. M. Ford's "Notes on Spanish Prosody," in A Spanish Anthology, published by Silver, Burdett & Co., 1901; and a Tratado de Literatura Preceptiva, by D. Saturnino Milego é Inglada, published at Toledo in 1887.

Spanish versification has nothing to do with the quantity of vowels (whether long or short), which was the basis of Latin prosody.

There are four important elements in Spanish versification. Of these four elements two are essential, and the other two are usually present.

The essential elements, without which Spanish verse cannot exist, are—

I. A determined number of syllables per line.

II. A rhythmic distribution of the accents in the line.

The additional elements usually present in Spanish poetical compositions are—

III. Caesural pauses.

IV. Rhyme.