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In his use of French Alexandrine, or twelve-syllable verse, Mistral takes few liberties as to caesura.  No ternary verses are found in Mireio, that is, verses that fall into three equal parts.  In general, it may be said that his Alexandrines, except in the play La Reino Jano, represent the classical type of the French poets.  To be noted, however, is the presence of feminine caesuras.  These occur, not theoretically or intentionally, but as a consequence of pronunciation, and are an additional beauty in that they vary the movement of the lines.  The unstressed vowel at the hemistich, theoretically elided, is pronounced because of the natural pause intervening between the two parts of the verse.

    “Per ouliva tant d’aubre!—­Hou, tout aco se fai!”

(Mireio, Canto I.)

In one of the divisions of Lou Tambour d’Arcolo (The Drummer of Arcole), the poet uses ten-syllable verse with the caesura after the sixth syllable, an exceedingly unusual caesura, imitated from the poem Girard de Roussillon.

    “Ah! lou pichot tambour | devengue flori! 
    Davans touto l’arma | —­do en plen souleu,
    Per estela soun front | d’un rai de glori,” etc.

Elsewhere he uses this verse divided after the fourth syllable, and less frequently after the fifth.

The stanza used by Mistral throughout Mireio and Calendau is his own invention.  Here is the first stanza of the second canto of Mireio:—­

        “Cantas, cantas, magnanarello,
        Que la culido es cantarello! 
    Galant soun li magnan e s’endormon di tres: 
        Lis amourie soun plen de fiho
        Que lou beu tems escarrabiho,
        Coume un vou de bloundis abiho
    Que raubon sa melico i roumanin dou gres.”

This certainly is a stanza of great beauty, and eminently adapted to the language.  Mistral is exceedingly skilful in the use of it, distributing pauses effectively, breaking the monotony of the repeated feminine verses with enjambements, and continuing the sense from one stanza to the next.  This stanza, like the language, is pretty and would scarcely be a suitable vehicle for poetic expression requiring great depth or stateliness.  Provencal verse in general cannot be said to possess majesty or the rich orchestral quality Brunetiere finds in Victor Hugo.  Its qualities are sweetness, daintiness, rapidity, grace, a merry, tripping flow, great smoothness, and very musical rhythm.

Mireio contains one ballad and two lyrics in a measure differing from that of the rest of the poem.  The ballad of the Bailiff Suffren has the swing and movement a sea ballad should possess.  The stanza is of six lines, of ten syllables each, with the caesura after the fifth syllable, the rhymes being abb, aba.

    “Lou Baile Sufren | que sus mar coumando.”