Editing Alliterative verse (section)

====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>