Structure, Other Requirement

Based on alliteration and stress, this is a style left over from the English language’s Anglo-Saxon forbears. It was usually done with four-stress lines with a cæsura (or pause in the middle). The stressed words were alliterated in a pattern such that the third stress always alliterated with either the first stress, the second stress, or both. The fourth stress did not alliterate internally, but might cross-alliterate with other lines. Alliteration was what held the lines of the poem together, rather than the rhyme more commonly used in non-Germanic European cultures. All vowels were considered to alliterate with each other, but compound consonants such as "sk" or "sp" would alliterate only with themselves, not each other. The Anglo-Saxons were more likely to use enjambment and not as likely to end-stop their lines compared with the Icelandic poets.

Anglo-Saxon

4

Accentual Verse, Alliteration, Enjambment, Epic, Old Story Measure, Song Measure, Speech Measure, Tetrastich

Incomplete