Editing Alliterative verse (section)

=== Alliterative verse in modernist poetics ===
The rediscovery of alliterative verse played a role in the modernist rebellion against traditional poetic forms,<ref name="auto1">{{cite thesis |last=Shapiro |first=Michael Marc |title=Buried rhythm: The alliterative tradition in 19th and 20th century poetry |year=1998 |id={{ProQuest|304426484}} |oclc=40517594 }}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref> most notably in Ezra Pound's Cantos (e.g., Canto I).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Byron |first1=Mark |chapter=Bibliographic Technography: Ezra Pound's Cantos as Philological Machine |pages=153–165 |editor1-last=Trotter |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Pryor |editor2-first=Sean |editor3-last=Trorrer |editor3-first=David |title=Writing, Medium, Machine: Modern Technographies |date=2016 |publisher=Open Humanities Press |isbn=978-1-78542-018-4 |url=http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/writing-medium-machine/ }}</ref> Multiple modernist poets experimented with alliterative verse, including W.H. Auden in ''[[The Age of Anxiety]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Phelpstead |first=Carl |date=2004 |title=Auden and the Inklings: An Alliterative Revival |journal=The Journal of English and Germanic Philology |volume=103 |issue=4 |pages=433–457 |jstor=27712458 }}</ref> [[Richard Eberhart]] in ''Brotherhood of Men'',<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mizener |first1=Arthur |title=The White Cliffs of Dover Revisited |journal=Poetry |date=1949 |volume=74 |issue=3 |pages=172–174 |jstor=20590908 }}</ref> and later, [[Richard Wilbur]] and [[Ted Hughes]].<ref name="auto1"/> However, these experiments are experiments more with the idea of alliterative verse than with traditional alliterative meters.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brooke-Rose |first1=Christine |title=Notes on the Metre of Auden's 'The Age of Anxiety' |journal=Essays in Criticism |date=1963 |volume=XIII |issue=3 |pages=253–264 |doi=10.1093/eic/xiii.3.253 }}</ref> For instance, many of the following lines from ''[[The Age of Anxiety]]'' violate basic principles of alliterative meter, such as placing stress and alliteration on grammatical function words like "yes" and "you":<poem style="margin-left: 2em">
<u>'''D'''</u>eep in my <u>'''d'''</u>ark. {{pad|1em}} the <u>'''d'''</u>ream shines
<u>'''Y'''</u>es, of <u>'''y'''</u>ou {{pad|1em}} <u>'''y'''</u>ou dear always;
My <u>'''c'''</u>ause to <u>'''c'''</u>ry, {{pad|1em}} <u>'''c'''</u>old but my
<u>'''St'''</u>ory <u>'''st'''</u>ill, {{pad|1em}} <u>'''st'''</u>ill my music.
<u>'''M'''</u>ild rose the <u>'''m'''</u>oon, {{pad|1em}} <u>'''m'''</u>oving through our
<u>'''N'''</u>aked <u>'''n'''</u>ights: {{pad|1em}} to<u>'''n'''</u>ight it rains;
<u>'''B'''</u>lack um<u>'''b'''</u>rellas: {{pad|1em}} <u>'''b'''</u>lossom out;
<u>'''G'''</u>one the <u>'''g'''</u>old, {{pad|1em}} my <u>'''g'''</u>olden ball. 
...
</poem>[[Richard Wilbur]]'s ''Junk'' comes closer to matching alliterative rhythms, but freely alliterates on the fourth stress, sometimes alliterating all four stresses in the same line (which an Old English poet would not, and a Middle English poet only rarely do), as in the poem's opening lines:<poem style="margin-left: 2em">
An <u>'''a'''</u>xe <u>'''a'''</u>ngles {{pad|1em}} from my neighbor's <u>'''a'''</u>shcan;
It is <u>'''h'''</u>ell's <u>'''h'''</u>andiwork, {{pad|1em}} the wood not <u>'''h'''</u>ickory.
The <u>'''f'''</u>low of the grain {{pad|1em}} not <u>'''f'''</u>aithfully <u>'''f'''</u>ollowed.
The <u>'''sh'''</u>ivered <u>'''sh'''</u>aft {{pad|1em}} rises from a <u>'''sh'''</u>ellheap
Of <u>'''p'''</u>lastic <u>'''p'''</u>laythings, {{pad|1em}} <u>'''p'''</u>aper <u>'''p'''</u>lates.
...
</poem>In his 1978 article on the potential of alliterative meter as a form in modern English, [[John Niles (scholar)|John D. Niles]] characterizes these experiments as essentially one-offs, rather than as part of an ongoing tradition.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Niles |first1=John D. |title=The Old Alliterative Verse Form as a Medium for Poetry |journal=Mosaic |date=1978 |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=19–33 |id={{ProQuest|1300045168}} |jstor=24777593 }}</ref>