English Alliterative Verse

A revisionary account of the 900-year-long history of a major poetic tradition, explored through metrics and literary history.

This book explores the history and development of English alliterative meter, and considers why the form has remained so enigmatic.

The meter of Middle English alliterative poetry, Thomas Cable contends, holds the key to a reinterpretation of both Old English meter and iambic pentameter, which in turn provides a new understanding of Middle English meter itself. Drawing upon recent insights in linguistics, Cable articulates a revolutionary theory of rhythm in English poetry from its beginnings through the Renaissance and beyond. Cable's discussion moves from the rhythms of Old English poetry and prose to the poetry of Chaucer and the Alliterative Revival, to Shakespeare and T. S. Eliot. He demonstrates that Middle English poetry does not show the continuity of tradition that standard authorities have asserted. With the Norman Conquest of 1066 came a clear break, and what followed was a drastic misreading by the poets of what had come before. Throughout the book, Cable constantly asks fundamental questions regarding the intentions of the poet, the impact of the perceived metrical tradition upon that poet, and, with reference to Peircean abduction, the possibility of constructing any metrical theory, especially one from the distant past. The answers and their implications—metrical, cognitive, and philosophical—provide the foundation for a new understanding of the creation and evolution of English versification from the seventh century to the present. The English Alliterative Tradition is a major and controversial study in medieval English poetics that illustrates and clarifies key ideas of the New Philology. It will be of interest to scholars and students of Old and Middle English, prosody, and historical linguistics.

'For editors of alliterative verse, this book is essential reading'. Susanna Fein, Speculum, lxxxv (2010), pp. 457 - 458. 'A model of meticulousness and sensible argument'. Thomas Bredehoft, Review of English Studies, lx (2009), pp. 802 - 804. The volume provides a comprehensive study of the metre of the unrhymed poems of the Alliterative Revival. It includes detailed analysis and discussion of line endings, alliterative patterning, historical grammar, the relationship between linguistic stress and beat, and presents new discoveries regarding the metrical rules of the a-verse. Readers interested in the metre and textual criticism of alliterative poems, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Siege of Jerusalem and the Alexander fragments, will find this monograph 'an outstanding, scholarly, assured and important work' (Ruth Kennedy, Royal Holloway, University of London).

Excerpt from Old English Poetry: Translations Into Alliterative Verse With Introductions and Notes In the preface to the volume of Early English Poems (1910) in which many of these translations first ap peared, the writer said: These renderings represent at least an attempt to make English poetry out of Anglo Saxon poetry. Many of them were made years ago for use in the class-room with my students. Like the poems they aim to reproduce, they led a mouth-to-ear existence long before they were elevated to the dignity of 'letters.' Even now the translator would wish to have them judged chiefly by their effect when read aloud. The older the poetry, the more vocal it is. Versions of Old English poetry that fail to make their appeal through the living rhythm of the living voice, fail not only in an essential of all poetry but in a quintessential of anglo-saxon poetry. In the special note on the Old English Alliter ative Metre, I have discussed the principles followed in rendering the Germanic alliterative verse in modern Eng lish. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.