# Romance (meter)

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Cover of the book *Libro de los cincuenta romances* (c. 1525), first known collection of *romances*.

The ***romance*** (the term is [Spanish](/source/Spanish_language), and is pronounced accordingly: Spanish pronunciation: [\[roˈmanθe\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Spanish)) is a [metrical](/source/Meter_(poetry)) form used in Spanish poetry.[1] It consists of an indefinite series (*tirada*) of verses, in which the even-numbered lines have a near-rhyme ([assonance](/source/Assonance)) and the odd lines are unrhymed.[1][2] The lines are [octosyllabic](/source/Octosyllabic) (eight syllables to a line);[1][3] a similar but far less common form is [hexasyllabic](/source/Hexasyllabic) (six syllables to a line) and is known in [Spanish](/source/Spanish_language) as ***romancillo*** (a diminutive of *romance*);[1] that, or any other form of less than eight syllables may also be referred to as ***romance corto*** ("short romance").[3][4] A similar form in [alexandrines](/source/Alexandrine) (12 syllables) also exists, but was traditionally used in Spanish only for learned poetry (*mester de clerecía*).[1]

Poems in the *romance* form may be as few as ten verses long, and may extend to over 1,000 verses. They may constitute either [epics](/source/Epic_poetry) or erudite *romances juglarescos* (from the Spanish word whose modern meaning is "[juggler](/source/Juggler)"; compare the [French](/source/French_language) *jongleur*, which can also refer to a [minstrel](/source/Minstrel) as well as a juggler). The epic forms trace back to the *[cantares de gesta](/source/Cantar_de_gesta)* (the Spanish equivalent of the French *[chansons de geste](/source/Chanson_de_geste)*) and the [lyric](/source/Lyric_poetry) forms to the [Provençal](/source/Occitan_language) *[pastorela](/source/Pastorela)*.

In the [Spanish Golden Age](/source/Spanish_Golden_Age), however, which is when the term came into wide use, *romance* was not understood to be a metrical form, but a type of narration, that could be written in various metrical forms. The first published collection of *romances*, [Martín Nucio](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mart%C3%ADn_Nucio&action=edit&redlink=1)'s *Cancionero de romances* (about 1547), was, according to Nucio's prologue, published not as poetry, but as a collection of historical source materials. Despite a considerable amount of poetic theory and history published during that period, there is no reference to *romance* as a term of meter prior to the nineteenth century. It did not mean an 8-syllable meter.[5]

## Notes

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Laurer_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Laurer_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Laurer_1-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-Laurer_1-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-Laurer_1-4) A. Robert Lauer, [Spanish Metrification](http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/A-Robert.R.Lauer-1/METRIFICATION.html) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20100620031251/http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/A-Robert.R.Lauer-1/METRIFICATION.html) 2010-06-20 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine), University of Oklahoma. Accessed online 2010-02-10.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Rodríguez-Fischer_2-0)** Ana Rodríguez-Fischer, *Prosa española de vanguardia*, Volume 249 of Clásicos Castalia, Editorial Castalia, 1999. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [84-7039-834-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/84-7039-834-2). p. 92*n*. [Available](https://books.google.com/books?id=TEzi8RAGUxYC&dq) on [Google Books](/source/Google_Books).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-DRAE_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-DRAE_3-1) [Romance](http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltObtenerHtml?LEMA=romance&SUPIND=0&CAREXT=10000&NEDIC=No), Diccionario de la Lengua Española, Vigésima segunda edición, Real Academia Española. Accessed online 2010-02-10.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Rodríguez-Fischer p. 92*n* gives *romance corto* and *romancillo* as synonyms for one another.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Daniel Eisenberg, “The Romance as Seen by Cervantes”, *El Crotalón. Anuario de Filología Española*, tomo 1 (1984), pp. 177-192, [https://web.archive.org/web/20150702023853/http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/deisenbe/cervantes/romance.pdf](https://web.archive.org/web/20150702023853/http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/deisenbe/cervantes/romance.pdf), retrieved August 4, 2015.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Romance (meter)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_(meter)) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_(meter)?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.