The hiatus is no longer tabooed, and lastly, not only the artificial rules of rhyme, but rhyme itself, is being done away with: assonance may take its place. If the constitution of the French language did not make it unlikely that these reforms should prove permanent, the vehicle of French poetic thought would become mere harmonious prose.
The English praeterite being the equivalent of three tenses in French, it is of the utmost importance that a clear idea of the shades of meaning conveyed by the latter should be firmly possessed.
_WHENEVER REPETITION OF THE ACTION IS IMPLIED_ the IMPARFAIT is used.
The force, in English, is "used to . . .," "kept . . . -ing," etc.
E.g., Esth. l. 6: _m'aidais à soupirer_ . . . "wast wont to sigh with me."
l. 83: . . . _disais-je_, . . . = "I would say"
_WHEN NO REPETITION OF THE ACTION IS IMPLIED_.
A. IF THE ACTION IS CONSIDERED AS BEING SIMPLY IN PROGRESS, WITHOUT REFERENCE EITHER TO ITS BEGINNING OR TO ITS END, again the IMPARFAIT is used.
The force, in English, is "was . . . -ing."
E.g., l. 12: _je vivais séparée_ = "I was living apart."
l. 58: . . . _attendaient leur arrêt_ = "were awaiting their doom."
B. IF THE ACTION IS STATED WITH REFERENCE EITHER TO ITS BEGINNING, OR TO ITS END, OR TO BOTH, the PASSÉ DÉFINI is used.
Thus _a. Simple occurrence_, which is the introduction of a new action now beginning to take place, takes the _passé défini_.
E.g., l. 19: . . . _ajouta-t-il_, . . . = "he [then] added."
l. 26: . . . _qui sauva nos aïeux_ = "which [once before] saved our forefathers."
l. 494.: _il trembla pour sa vie_ = "he began to tremble for his life."
_b. Continuous duration through a completed period of time_ which may be expressed or implied, takes the _passé défini_.
E.g., l. 4: . . . _fus de mes premiers ans la compagne assidue_ = "wast the constant companion of my earliest years."
l. 272: . . . _qui ne furent jamais_ = "who never [in all time] had existence."
l. 477: . . . _il fut des Juifs_ = "there was once [but is no more] a race of Jews."
NOTE that the action may be stated as recurring a given or indefinite number of times, and yet the verb will not be in the imperfect.
E.g., l. 249: _Mon pere mille fois m'a dit_ . . .
If the imperfect were used here, the meaning would be "My father used to tell me a thousand times," i.e., he told me 1000 X n times, and in the second sentence, "I grew pale 2 X n times."