According to whether we count, in verse, all syllables, regardless of accent, or only the accented syllables, we recognize in the modern languages two systems of versification, the foot system and the syllabic system. In each of the following verses of Boileau, for example, we may enumerate twelve syllables, or find four feet thus graphically illustrated:

En vain | contre le Cid | un mini | stre se ligue,
Tout Paris | pour Chimè | ne a les yeux | de Rodrigue.