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Alliterative verse
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===Formal features=== ====Meter and rhythm==== The form of alliterative verse changed gradually over time.<ref>{{cite book |last=Eric|first=Weiskott |title=English Alliterative Verse: Poetic Tradition and Literary History |date=9 November 2016 |isbn=978-1316718674 |location=Cambridge |oclc=968234809 }}{{page needed|date=January 2021}}</ref> Layamon's Brut retained many features of Old English verse, along with significant changes in meter. By the 14th Century, the Middle English alliterative long line had emerged, which was rhythmically very different from the Old English meter. In Old English, the first half-line (the on-verse, or a-verse) was not very different rhythmically from the second half-line (the off-verse, or b-verse). In Middle English, the a-verse had great rhythmic flexibility (so long as it contained two clear strong stresses), whereas the b-verse could only contain one "long dip" (sequence of two or more unstressed or weakly stressed syllables).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cable |first1=Thomas |title=Progress in Middle English Alliterative Metrics |journal=The Yearbook of Langland Studies |date=January 2009 |volume=23 |pages=243–264 |doi=10.1484/J.YLS.1.100478 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Inoue |first1=Noriko |last2=Stokes |first2=Myra |title=Restrictions on Dip Length in the Alliterative Line: The A-Verse and the B-Verse |journal=The Yearbook of Langland Studies |date=January 2012 |volume=26 |pages=231–260 |doi=10.1484/J.YLS.1.103210 }}</ref> These rules applied to unrhymed alliterative long lines, typical of longer alliterative poems. Rhyming alliterative poems, such as ''Pearl'' and the densely structured poem ''[[The Three Dead Kings]]'', were generally built, like later English rhyming verse, on patterns of alternating stresses.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cole |first=Kristin Lynn |title=Rum, ram, ruf, and rym: Middle English alliterative meters |publisher=The University of Texas at Austin |year=2007}}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref> The following lines from ''Piers Plowman'' illustrate the basic rhythmic patterns of the Middle English alliterative long line: {{lang|enm|<blockquote><poem style="font-style:italic;"> A feir <u>'''f'''</u>eld full of <u>'''f'''</u>olk {{pad|1em}} <u>'''f'''</u>ond I þer bitwene, Of alle <u>'''m'''</u>aner of <u>'''m'''</u>en, {{pad|1em}} þe <u>'''m'''</u>ene and þe riche, <u>'''W'''</u>orchinge and <u>'''w'''</u>andringe {{pad|1em}} as þe <u>'''w'''</u>orld askeþ. </poem></blockquote>}} In modern spelling: <blockquote><poem style="font-style:italic;"> A fair <u>'''f'''</u>ield full of <u>'''f'''</u>olk {{pad|1em}} <u>'''f'''</u>ound I there between, Of all <u>'''m'''</u>anner of <u>'''m'''</u>en {{pad|1em}} the <u>'''m'''</u>ean and the rich, <u>'''W'''</u>orking and <u>'''w'''</u>andering {{pad|1em}} as the <u>'''w'''</u>orld asketh. </poem></blockquote> In modern translation: <blockquote><poem> Among them I found a fair field full of people All manner of men, the poor and the rich Working and wandering as the world requires. </poem></blockquote> The 'a' verses contain multiple unstressed or weakly stressed syllables before, between, and after the two main stresses. In the 'b' verses, the long dip falls immediately before or after the first strong stress in that half-line.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Duggan |first=Hoyt N. |date=1986 |title=The Shape of the B-Verse in Middle English Alliterative Poetry |journal=Speculum |volume=61 |issue=3 |pages=564–592 |doi=10.2307/2851596 |jstor=2851596 |s2cid=162879708 }}</ref> ==== Rules for alliteration ==== In the Middle-English 'a'-verse, the two main stresses alliterate with one another and with the first stressed syllable in the 'b'-verse. There are thus a minimum of three alliterations in the Middle English long line,<ref name="Cable"/> a fact that is implicitly recognized by the comment made by the parson in the [[Parson's Prologue]] in the [[The Canterbury Tales|Canterbury Tales]] that he did not know how to "rum, ram, ruf, by letter".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sutherland |first1=A. |title=Review: Alliterative Revivals |journal=The Review of English Studies |date=November 2004 |volume=55 |issue=222 |pages=787–788 |doi=10.1093/res/55.222.787 }}</ref> In the 'a'-verse, additional, secondary stresses can also alliterate, as seen in the line quoted above from [[Piers Plowman]] ('a fair field full of folk', with four alliterations in the 'a'-verse), or in ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight|Sir Gawain]]'' l.2, "the borgh brittened and brent" with three alliterations in the 'a'-verse). Only the first stress in the 'b'-verse normally alliterates,in line with the general Germanic rule that the last stress in the line does not alliterate. However, in Middle English alliterative poems, the final stress occasionally alliterates with other strong stresses in the line (as in the first line of [[Piers Plowman]]: "In a somer seson, whan softe was þe sonne,").<ref name="Duggan 1977 223–247"/> ====Diction==== Middle English alliterative verse maintained a stock of poetic synonyms, many of them inherited from Old English, though it was no longer characterized by the rich use of [[kenning]]s.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1515/9783110525328-014 |chapter=Literary Language |title=Middle English |date=2017 |last1=Arnovick |first1=Leslie K. |pages=261–291 |isbn=978-3-11-052532-8 }}</ref> For example, a Middle English alliterative poem could refer to men by such a variety of terms as ''were, churl, shalk, gome, here, rink, segge, freke, man, carman, mother's son, heme, hind, piece, buck, bourne, groom, sire, harlot, guest, tailard, tulk, sergeant, fellow,'' or ''horse''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ciszek |first1=Ewa |title=The Middle English Suffix -Ish: Reasons for Decline in Productivity |journal=Stap |date=June 2012 |volume=47 |issue=2–3 |pages=27–39 |doi=10.2478/v10121-012-0002-z |s2cid=170790181 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
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