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El Cid Style
Meter
Discussions of the Cantar de mio Cid's narrative technique tend to revolve around the unusual irregularity of the epic's meter. French epic, for example the Song of Roland, is characterized by its regular, assonanced ten-syllable lines. The French epic is organized in "laisses," or unequal blocks of text that are grouped by their assonance, that is, the similarity of the last vowel of the line. Additionally, each line has a strong hemistich, also known as the "caesura," or pause between the first four syllables and the final six. Thus, in The Song of Roland:
Rollant est proz e Oliver est sage; Ambedui unt merveillus vasselage (11.1093-94)
The narrative technique of the Cid does share some similarities with this pattern. The epic is constructed of 152 assonanced laisses with a strong hemistich. Thus:
De Ios sos ojos tan fuertemientre Ilorando, tornava la cabega'e estavalos catando (11 1-2)
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This section contains 609 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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