Old English metre

See also: alliterative verse

Old English metre is the conventional name given to the poetic metre in which English language poetry was composed in the Anglo-Saxon period. The best-known example of poetry composed in this verse form is Beowulf, but the vast majority of Old English poetry belongs to the same tradition. The most salient feature of Old English poetry is its heavy use of alliteration.

The most widely used system for classifying Old English prosodic patterns is based on that developed by Eduard Sievers and extended by Alan Joseph Bliss.[1][2][3] The discussion which follows is mostly based on that system, with modifications from the more recent literature. Another popular system is that of Geoffrey Russom, which is predicated on a theory of meter involving two metrical feet per verse.[4][5][6] Another is that of Thomas Cable, based on the idea that each verse contains four syllables, with specific rules for the addition of extra unstressed syllables.[7][8][9]

  1. ^ Sammlung kurzer Grammatiken germanischer Dialekte. Reihe B: Ergänzungsreihe. Berlin, New York: DE GRUYTER.
  2. ^ Griffith, Mark (2022-09-30), "Appendix 2.", Tradition and Innovation in Old English Metre, Arc Humanities Press, pp. 251–256, ISBN 978-1-80270-025-1, retrieved 2023-11-30
  3. ^ Terasawa, Jun (2011). Old English metre: an introduction. Toronto Anglo-Saxon series. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-4238-6.
  4. ^ Russom, Geoffrey (1987). Old English Meter and Linguistic Theory. Cambridge University Press.
  5. ^ Russom, Geoffrey (1998). Beowulf and Old Germanic Metre. Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England, 23. Cambridge University Press.
  6. ^ Bredehoft, Thomas A. (2005). Early English Metre. University of Toronto Press.
  7. ^ Cable, Thomas (1991). The English Alliterative Tradition. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-1-5128-0385-3.
  8. ^ Hall, Alaric. "A beginner's guide (hopefully) to Old English metre (version 1.5, September 26th 2016" (PDF).
  9. ^ Cornelius, Ian; Weiskott, Eric (2021). "The intricacies of counting to four in Old English poetry". Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics. 30 (3): 249–275. doi:10.1177/09639470211012297. ISSN 0963-9470.