The Ode Less Travelled Part 6

If you wanted to scan that line, you would say 'haircut' and 'two bits' were both spondaic. But what is 'shave-and-a'? When you think about it, it is an anapaest in reverse. Instead of t.i.tty-tum ( (), it is tum tum-t.i.tty. (). A new ternary foot for us to meet and its name is dactyl dactyl.

THE D DACTYL.

As a matter of fact the earliest and greatest epics in our culture, Homer's Iliad Iliad and and Odyssey Odyssey were written in dactylic hexameters. Remember, though, cla.s.sical poetry was written in quant.i.tative measure, where those feet were better described as 'long short short',-'wait for it', 'cool, not hot', 'smooth black pig' rather than our sprightly were written in dactylic hexameters. Remember, though, cla.s.sical poetry was written in quant.i.tative measure, where those feet were better described as 'long short short',-'wait for it', 'cool, not hot', 'smooth black pig' rather than our sprightly tum tum-t.i.tty. The word dactyl comes from the Greek for 'finger': fingers have one long joint and two short ones. In reality, Greek metrical units are closer to musical notes in that they tell you their duration: a long syllable takes exactly twice as long to utter as a short one, hence you could say a dactyl for Greek-style quant.i.tative verse should be written thus:

Homer's verse didn't swing along in a bouncy rhythmic way, it pulsed in gentle lo-o-o-ng short-short, lo-o-o-ng short-short waves, each line usually ending with a spondee. As I hope I have made pretty clear by now, that sort of metrical arrangement isn't suited to the English tongue. We go, not by duration, but by syllabic accentuation.

Tennyson's dialect poem 'Northern Farmer' shows that, as with Browning's anapaests, a dactyl in English verse, using stressed stressed-weak-weak syllables instead of lo-o-o-ng-short-short, has its place, also here imitating the trot of a horse's hooves as it sounds out the word 'property'. (I have stripped it of Tennyson's attempts at phonetic northern brogue'paains', for example.) Proputty, proputty, proputtythat's what I 'ears 'em sayProputty, proputty, proputtySam, thou's an a.s.s for thy pains The poem ends with the line:

Five dactyls and a single full stop stress on the 'way' of 'away'. As with anapaests, lines of pure dactyls are rather predictable and uninteresting: Tum-t.i.tty, tum tum-t.i.tty, tum tum-t.i.tty, tum tum-t.i.tty Just as the anapaest in its rising rhythm, its move from weak to strong, is a ternary version of the iamb, so the dactyl, in its falling falling rhythm, its move from strong to weak, is a ternary version of the trochee. Furthermore, just as it is rewarding to clip the first weak syllable of an anapaestic line, as we saw Browning do (in other words subst.i.tute the first foot with an iamb) so dactylic verse can be highly compelling when you dock the rhythm, its move from strong to weak, is a ternary version of the trochee. Furthermore, just as it is rewarding to clip the first weak syllable of an anapaestic line, as we saw Browning do (in other words subst.i.tute the first foot with an iamb) so dactylic verse can be highly compelling when you dock the last last weak syllable (in other words subst.i.tute the final foot with a trochee). weak syllable (in other words subst.i.tute the final foot with a trochee).

Tum-t.i.tty, tum tum-t.i.tty, tum tum-t.i.tty, tum tum-ti Or you could use a single beat as Tennyson does above (a docked trochee, if you like): Tum-t.i.tty, tum tum-t.i.tty, tum tum-t.i.tty, tum tum.

Browning uses this kind of dactylic metre to great effect in 'The Lost Leader', his savage attack on Wordsworth. Browning regarded him as a sell-out for accepting the post of Poet Laureate:

Just for a handful of silver he left usJust for a riband to stick in his coat.

This creates verse with great rhythmic dash and drive. Some poets, however, in their admiration for Homer, attempted to construct quant.i.tative English dactylic hexameters, ending them, as is common in cla.s.sical verse, with spondees. Edgar Allan Poe had this to say about Longfellow's stab at translating the Swedish dactyls of a poet called Tegner: In attempting (what never should be attempted) a literal version of both the words and the metre of this poem, Professor Longfellow has failed to do justice either to his author or himself. He has striven to do what no man ever did well and what, from the nature of the language itself, never can be well done. Unless, for example, we shall come to have an influx of spondees in our English tongue, it will always be impossible to construct an English hexameter. Our spondees, or, we should say, our spondaic words, are rare. In the Swedish they are nearly as abundant as in the Latin and Greek. We have only 'compound', 'context', 'footfall', and a few other similar ones.

Longfellow's Evangeline Evangeline might be considered a more successful attempt to write English dactylic hexameter in the cla.s.sical style: might be considered a more successful attempt to write English dactylic hexameter in the cla.s.sical style: This is the is the for forest primeval. The mur murmuring pines pines and the and the hemlocks hemlocks.

Poe and modern English metrists might prefer that last foot 'hemlocks' not be called a cla.s.sical spondee but a trochee. Those last two feet, incidentally, dactyl-spondee, or more commonly dactyl-trochee, are often found as a closing rhythm known as an Adonic Line Adonic Line (after Sappho's lament to Adonis: 'O ton Adonin!' 'Oh, for Adonis!'). The contemporary American poet Michael h.e.l.ler ends his poem 'She' with an excellent Adonic line (or (after Sappho's lament to Adonis: 'O ton Adonin!' 'Oh, for Adonis!'). The contemporary American poet Michael h.e.l.ler ends his poem 'She' with an excellent Adonic line (or clausula clausula, the cla.s.sical term for a closing phrase): And AndI am happy, happier even then when her mouth is on me and I gasp at the ceiling.

'Gasp at the ceiling' is an exact 'Oh for Adonis' Adonic clausula. We shall meet it again when we look at Sapphic Odes in Chapter Three.

Robert Southey (Byron's enemy) and Arthur Hugh Clough were about the only significant English poets to experiment with consistent dactylic hexameters: one of Clough's best-known poems 'The Bothie of Tober Na-Vuolich' is in a kind of mixed dactylic hexameter. By happy chance, I heard a fine dactylic tetrameter on the BBC's s.h.i.+pping Forecast last night:

Dogger, cyclonic becoming northeasterly...

By all means try writing dactyls, but you will probably discover that they need to end in trochees, iambs or spondees. As a falling rhythm, there is often a pleasingly fugitive quality to dactylics, but they can sound hypnotically dreary without the affirmative closure of stressed beats at line-end.

Bernstein's Latin rhythms in his song 'America' inspired a dactyl-dactyl-spondee combination from his lyricist Stephen Sondheim:

I like the like the cit city of San Juan San Juan I know a know a boat boat you can you can get on get on And for the chorus:

I like to like to be be in Am in America Everything's free free in Am in America.

You have to wrench the rhythm to make it work when speaking it, but the lines fit the music exactly as I have marked them. America, you'll notice, has three three stressed final syllables, a kind of ternary spondee, stressed final syllables, a kind of ternary spondee, tum-tum-tum tum-tum-tum.

THE M MOLOSSUS AND T TRIBRACH.

The tum-tum-tum tum-tum-tum has the splendid name has the splendid name molossus molossus, like Colossus, and is a foot of three long syllables---or, if we were to use it in English poetry, three stressed stressed syllables, syllables,. Molossus was a town in Epirus known for its huge mastiffs, so perhaps the name of the foot derives from the dog's great bow-wow-wow. If a spondee, as Poe remarked, is rare in spoken English, how much rarer still is a molossus. We've seen one from Sondheim, and songwriting, where wrenched rhythms are permissible and even desirable, is precisely where we would most expect to find it. W. S. Gilbert found four triumphant examples for his matchless 'To Sit in Solemn Silence' from The Mikado The Mikado.

To sit in solemn silence in a dull dark dock dull dark dock,In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock life-long lock,Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock short, sharp shock,From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block big black block!

The molossus, like its smaller brother the spondee, is clearly impossible for whole lines of poetry, but in combination with a dactyl, for example, it seems to suit not just Gilbert's and Sondheim's lyrics as above, but also call and response chants and playful interludes, like this exchange between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.

Why do you do you bo bother me? Go to h.e.l.l Go to h.e.l.l!I am your am your des destiny. Can't you tell Can't you tell?You're not my not my fath father. Eat my shorts Eat my shorts.Come to the to the dark dark side. side. Feel the force Feel the force.

As you might have guessed, that isn't a poem, but a children's skipping rhyme popular in the eighties. Lines three and four use a trochaic subst.i.tution for the dactyl in their second foot, but I wouldn't recommend going on to a playground and pointing this out.

I suppose Tennyson's Break, break, breakAt the foot of thy crags, O Sea!

could be said to start with a molossus, followed by two anapaests and a spondee.

If a molossus is the ternary equivalent of the spondee, is there a ternary version of the pyrrhic foot too? Well, you bet your boots there is and it is called a tribrach tribrach (literally three short). A molossus you might use, but a tribrach? Unlikely. Of course, it is very possible that a line of your verse would contain three unstressed syllables in a row, as we know from pyrrhic subst.i.tution in lines of binary feet, but no one would call such examples tribrachs. I only mention it for completeness and because I care so deeply for your soul. (literally three short). A molossus you might use, but a tribrach? Unlikely. Of course, it is very possible that a line of your verse would contain three unstressed syllables in a row, as we know from pyrrhic subst.i.tution in lines of binary feet, but no one would call such examples tribrachs. I only mention it for completeness and because I care so deeply for your soul.

THE A AMPHIBRACH.

Another ternary, or triple, foot is the amphibrach amphibrach, though it is immensely doubtful whether you'll have cause to use this one a great deal either. Amphi Amphi in Greek means 'on both sides' (as in an amphitheatre) and in Greek means 'on both sides' (as in an amphitheatre) and brachys brachys means 'short', so an amphibrach is short on both sides. All of which means it is a triplet consisting of two short or unstressed syllables either side of a long or stressed one: ----or, in English verse: means 'short', so an amphibrach is short on both sides. All of which means it is a triplet consisting of two short or unstressed syllables either side of a long or stressed one: ----or, in English verse: . 'Romantic' and 'deluded' are both amphibrachic words and believe me, you'd have to be romantic and deluded to try and write consistent amphibrachic poetry. . 'Romantic' and 'deluded' are both amphibrachic words and believe me, you'd have to be romantic and deluded to try and write consistent amphibrachic poetry.

Ro Romantic, deluded, a tot total disaster.Don't do do it I it I beg beg you, self- you, self-slaughter is fast faster Goethe and later German-language poets like Rilke were fond of it and it can occasionally be found (mixed with other metres) in English verse. Byron experimented with it, but the poet who seemed most taken with the metre was Matthew Prior. This is the opening line of 'Jinny the Just'.

And this of 'From my own Monument':

You might think amphibrachs (with the weak ending docked) lurk in this old rhyming proverb:

But that's just plain silly:27it is actually more like the metre of Browning's 'Ghent to Aix': anapaests with the opening syllable docked.

If wish wishes were hors horses then beg beggars would ride rideI sprang sprang to the to the sad saddle and Jor Joris and he he.

Just as my my amphibrachic doggerel could be called a clipped anapaestic line with a weak ending: amphibrachic doggerel could be called a clipped anapaestic line with a weak ending: Romantic, deluded, a tot total disaster.Don't do do it I it I beg beg you, self- you, self-slaughter is fast faster Some metrists claim the amphibrach can can be found in English poetry. You will see it and hear it in perhaps the most popular of all verse forms extant, they say. I wonder if you can tell what this form is, just by be found in English poetry. You will see it and hear it in perhaps the most popular of all verse forms extant, they say. I wonder if you can tell what this form is, just by READING OUT THE RHYTHM READING OUT THE RHYTHM?

Ti-tum-ti ti-tum-ti ti-tum-t.i.ti-tum-ti ti-tum-ti ti-tum-t.i.ti-tum-ti ti-tumTi-tum-ti ti-tumTi-tum-ti ti-tum-ti ti-tum-ti It is, of course, the limerick.

There was a young man from AustraliaWho painted his a.r.s.e like a dahlia.Just tuppence a smellWas all very well,But fourpence a lick was a failure.

So, next time someone tells you a limerick you can inform them that it is verse made up of three lines of amphibrachic trimeter with two internal lines of catalectic amphibrachic dimeter. You would be punched very hard in the face for pointing this out, but you could do it. Anyway, the whole thing falls down if your limerick involves a monosyllabic hero: There was a young chaplain from King's,Who discoursed about G.o.d and such things:But his deepest desireWas a boy in the choirWith a bottom like jelly on springs.Ti-tum t.i.tty- t.i.tty-tum t.i.tty- t.i.tty-tumt.i.tty-tum t.i.tty- t.i.tty-tum t.i.tty- t.i.tty-tumt.i.tty-tum t.i.tty- t.i.tty-tumt.i.tty-tum t.i.tty- t.i.tty-tumt.i.tty-tum t.i.tty- t.i.tty-tum t.i.tty- t.i.tty-tum You don't get much more anapaestic than that. A pederastic anapaestic quintain, 28 2828in fact. Most people would say that limericks are certainly anapaestic in nature and that amphibrachs belong only in cla.s.sical quant.i.tative verse. Most people, for once, would be right. The trouble is, if you vary an amphibrachic line even slightly (which you'd certainly want to do whether it was limerick or any other kind of poem), the metre then becomes impossible to distinguish from any anapaestic or dactylic metre or a mixture of all the feet we've already come to know and love. Simpler in verse of triple feet to talk only of rising three-stress rhythms (anapaests) and falling three-stress rhythms (dactyls). But by all means try writing with amphibrachs as an exercise to help flex your metric muscles, much as a piano student rattles out arpeggios or a golfer practises approach shots.

THE A AMPHIMACER.

It follows that if there is a name for a three-syllable foot with the beat in the middle (romantic, despondent, unyielding) there will be a name for a three-syllable foot with a beat either side of an un un stressed middle ( stressed middle (tamper proof, hand proof, hand to to mouth, Ox mouth, Oxford Road Road).29 Sure enough: the Sure enough: the amphimacer amphimacer ( (macro, or long, on both sides) also known as the cretic foot cretic foot (after the Cretan poet Thaletas) goes (after the Cretan poet Thaletas) goes tum tum-ti-tum in answer to the amphibrach's ti- in answer to the amphibrach's ti-tum-ti. Tennyson's 'The Oak', which is short enough to reproduce here in full, is written in amphimacers and is also an example of that rare breed, a poem written in monometer, lines of just one foot. It could also be regarded as a pattern pattern or or shaped shaped poem (of which more later) inasmuch as its layout suggests its subject, an oak tree. poem (of which more later) inasmuch as its layout suggests its subject, an oak tree.

Live thy life,Young and old,Like yon oak,Bright in spring,Living gold;Summer-richThen; and thenAutumn-changed,Soberer huedGold again.All his leavesFall'n at length,Look, he stands,Trunk and bough,Naked strength.

Alexander Pope a century earlier had written something similar as a tribute to his friend Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels Gulliver's Travels: In amazeLost I gazeCan our eyesReach thy size?

...and so on. Tennyson's is more successful, I think. You won't find too many other amphimacers on your poetic travels: once again, English poets, prosodists and metrists don't really believe in them. Maybe you will be the one to change their minds.

QUATERNARY F FEET.

Can one have metrical units of four syllables? Quaternary feet? Well, in cla.s.sical poetry they certainly existed, but in English verse they are scarce indeed. Suppose we wrote this:

That's a hexameter of alternating pyrrhic and spondaic feet and might make a variant closing or opening line to a verse, but would be hard to keep up for a whole poem. However, you could look at it as a trimeter trimeter:

The name for this t.i.tty-tum-tum foot is a foot is a double iamb double iamb, sometimes called an ionic minor ionic minor. Again, these are incredibly rare in English poetry. One such foot might be used for emphasis, variation or the capturing of a specific speech pattern, but it is never going to form the metrical pattern for a whole poem, save for the purposes of a prosodic equivalent of a Chopin etude, in other words as a kind of training exercise. Whether you call the above line an ionic minor or double iambic trimeter, a pyrrhic spondaic hexameter or any other d.a.m.ned thing really doesn't matter. Rather insanely there is a quaternary foot called a diamb diamb, which goes ti-tum-ti tum tum, but for our purposes that is not a foot of four, it is simply two standard iambic feet. Frankly my dear, I don't give a diamb. Some people, including a couple of modern practising poets I have come across, like the double iamb, however, and would argue that the Wilfred Owen line I scanned as a pyrrhic earlier:

Should properly be called a double iamb or ionic minor since 'good-bye' is double-stressed:

Well, hours of lively debate down the pub over that one. We will tiptoe away and leave them to it.

You may have guessed that if a double iamb or ionic minor minor goes t.i.tty- goes t.i.tty-tum-tum, then an ionic major major might well do the opposite: might well do the opposite: tum-tum tum-tum-t.i.tty, tum-tum tum-tum-t.i.tty:: 'make much of it', that sort of rhythm: of it', that sort of rhythm: Lee Harvey the lone gun lone gunman, did cold heart cold heartedlyShoot fatally John Kenn John Kennedy: poor Jacq poor Jacqueline.

You'd be right to think it ought ought to be called a double trochee too, but so far as I am aware this term isn't used for such a foot, just ionic major. to be called a double trochee too, but so far as I am aware this term isn't used for such a foot, just ionic major.

For the record, you'll find the other quaternary feet in the table at the end of this chapter: they include the antispast, the choriamb and the epitrite and paeon families. Again, good for name-dropping at parties, but like the other measures of four, vestiges of Greek poetry that really don't have a useful place in the garden of English verse. Rupert Brooke experimented with accentual versions of choriambs, which go tum tum-t.i.tty-tum: Bill Billy the Kid Kid. True cla.s.sical choriambic verse lines should start with a spondee followed by choriambs and a pyrrhic:

Brooke came up with lines like: Light-foot dance in the in the woods, whis woods, whisper of life, woo life, woo me to me to way wayfaring To make the last two syllables a pyrrhic foot you have to read the word as 'wafering', which is not quite what Brooke means. He, of course, was cla.s.sically educated to a degree unimaginable today and would from his early teens have written Greek and Latin poems scanned according to quant.i.tative vowel length, not stress. The vast bulk of successful English verse is, as we know, accentual-syllabic. Nonetheless, he shows that all the metres lie in readiness, waiting for someone to experiment with them. The problem comes when a form is so specific as to cause you to cast about for what fits the metre rather than what fits the true sense of what you want to say. How far the meaning and feeling drives you and how far, as a poet, you allow form and metre to guide you where you never expected to go is for a later section of the book.

There is another kind of native metre, however, the accentual accentual, at which we will take a look when you have completed one more drill.

Poetry Exercise 6 Write some anapaestic hexameters describing how to get to your house.

Just as far far as the as the mo motorway takes takes you then you then straight straight past the past theLakenheath bend bend.Take a left left on the on the Na Narborough Road Road then a then a right right when you when youcome to the to the end end.It's the house house with the with the shut shutters all closed closed and a and a gar garden that's frank frankly a slum slum.When you're there there, why not park park round the round the back back or just or justhoot on your on your horn horn till I till I come come?

And some dactylic pentameter on the subject of cows. For fun these should be in the cla.s.sical manner: four dactyls and a spondee: try to make the spondee as spondaic as the English tongue will allowtwo solid bovine stressed syllables.

Standing in rand randomly cur curious hudd huddles in long gra.s.s long gra.s.sPatient as stat statues, but twitch twitching and steam steaming like stopped stoppedtrainsPensively wait waiting for someth something to happ happen that just won't just won'tProbably think thinking we're nerv nervous and skitt skittish as new calves new calves.

Your turn now. You have forty minutes for your two verses.

V.

Anglo-Saxon Att.i.tudes Accentual versealliteration and the two-beat hemistich

English verse sprang, like the English language, from two princ.i.p.al sources, Greco-Roman and Anglo-Saxon. From the Greeks and Romans we took ordered syllabic measures, from the Old English we took accent accent. We put them together to make the native accentual-syllabic accentual-syllabic verse that we have been looking at thus far. It is the cla.s.sical stream that had the most obvious influence on our poetry and certainly on the technical language we use to describe it, but the Anglo-Saxon tributary has carved its way through our literary landscape too. For hundreds of years it lay isolated, like an old oxbow lake, cut off from the flow, but over the last century or more it has snaked its way back into the mainstream. It is worth dipping our toes in to see if we find it congenial. I suspect that after the syllable counting and foot.w.a.tching of the foregoing pages, you will find its comparative freedom a great delight. verse that we have been looking at thus far. It is the cla.s.sical stream that had the most obvious influence on our poetry and certainly on the technical language we use to describe it, but the Anglo-Saxon tributary has carved its way through our literary landscape too. For hundreds of years it lay isolated, like an old oxbow lake, cut off from the flow, but over the last century or more it has snaked its way back into the mainstream. It is worth dipping our toes in to see if we find it congenial. I suspect that after the syllable counting and foot.w.a.tching of the foregoing pages, you will find its comparative freedom a great delight.

ANGLO-SAXON and O and OLD E ENGLISH are (more or less) interchangeable terms used for verse written in England before the Norman Conquest of 1066. M are (more or less) interchangeable terms used for verse written in England before the Norman Conquest of 1066. MIDDLE E ENGLISH or M or MEDIEVAL applies to a later, post-Norman revival of the Old English style. These are loose ascriptions but will do for our purposes. applies to a later, post-Norman revival of the Old English style. These are loose ascriptions but will do for our purposes.

With Old English poetry there is NO SYLLABIC COUNT NO SYLLABIC COUNT and there is and there is NO RHYME NO RHYME. Is it free verse free verse, then, unbounded by rules? By no means. Old English verse is distinctly patterned. Until now we have been looking at metre composed according to rules of syllabic accentuation syllabic accentuation: Anglo-Saxon poetry is composed according to rules of accent only accent only: it is a form of accentual accentual verse. Accentual- verse. Accentual-alliterative to be precise. Oo-er, sounds a bit scary. It really isn't, I promise you. to be precise. Oo-er, sounds a bit scary. It really isn't, I promise you.

Alliteration is the trick of beginning a succession of words with the same consonant.30W. S. Gilbert's 'life-long lock', 'short sharp shock' and 'big black block' are examples of alliterative phrases that we have already met. Alliteration is still rife in Englishadvertisers and magazine sub-editors seem obsessed with it. Next time you find yourself out and about with your notebook, write down examples from advertising h.o.a.rdings and newspaper headlines. It is an English disease: you won't find it to anything like the same degree in Spanish, French or Italian. It lives on in phrases like 'wit and wisdom', 'parent power', 'feast or famine', 'sweet sixteen', 'dirty dozen', 'buy British', 'prim and proper', 'tiger in your tank', 'you can be sure of Sh.e.l.l' and so on. As we have seen, Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night's Dream A Midsummer Night's Dream mocked its overuse when Bottom and his friends attempt dramatic verse. Here is another part of their dreadful 'Pyramus and Thisbe': mocked its overuse when Bottom and his friends attempt dramatic verse. Here is another part of their dreadful 'Pyramus and Thisbe': Whereat, with blade, with b.l.o.o.d.y blameful blade,He bravely broach'd his boiling b.l.o.o.d.y breast; That is cast in standard Shakespearean iambic pentameter. Old English verse made no such regular, organised use of iambs or any other kind of foot; instead, their verse was based on a much simpler kind of accentuation. The poetic line is divided in two divided in two. Two parts, each containing two stressed elements, two beats. The Greek for half a line is hemistich hemistich (p.r.o.nounced hemmy-stick) and so, Greek being the language even of native English prosody, hemistich is the word commonly used to describe the Anglo-Saxon half-line. (p.r.o.nounced hemmy-stick) and so, Greek being the language even of native English prosody, hemistich is the word commonly used to describe the Anglo-Saxon half-line.

Each hemistich must contain two stressed stressed syllables. It doesn't matter where they come or how many unstressed syllables surround them. For now, we will call the stressed syllables syllables. It doesn't matter where they come or how many unstressed syllables surround them. For now, we will call the stressed syllables one, two, three one, two, three and and four four. One and two are placed in the first hemistich, three three and and four four in the second. I have left a deliberately wide gap to denote the vital caesura that marks the division into hemistichs. in the second. I have left a deliberately wide gap to denote the vital caesura that marks the division into hemistichs.

One comes along with comes along with two two and three three is there with is there with four four Let old one one take take two's two's hand hand while young three three has a word with has a word with four four Here come one one and and two two three is there with is there with four four

Although 'comes', 'along', 'there', 'hand', 'young' and 'word' might seem to be words which ought properly to receive some stress, it is only the numbers numbers here that take the primary accent. Try reading the three lines aloud, deliberately hitting the numbers hard. here that take the primary accent. Try reading the three lines aloud, deliberately hitting the numbers hard.

You get the idea. Of course there will always be minor, secondary stresses on the other words, but it is those four stressed elements that matter. You could say, if you love odd words as much as most poets do, that a line of Anglo-Saxon poetry is in reality a syzygy of dipodic hemistichs. A pair of yoked two-foot half-lines, in other words. But I prefer syzygy. It really is a word, I promise you.31 Now for the alliterative alliterative principle, christened by Michael Alexander, Anglo-Saxon scholar and translator of principle, christened by Michael Alexander, Anglo-Saxon scholar and translator of Beowulf Beowulf, the BANG, BANG, BANGCRASH BANG, BANG, BANGCRAs.h.!.+ rule.

ONE, TWO AND THREE ARE ALLITERATED, FOUR ISN'T It is as simple as that. No rhyming, so syllable counting. In fact, why bother with the word hemistich at all? The line is divided into two: the first half has bang bang and and bang bang, and the second half has bang bang and and crash crash. That's all you really need to know. Let us scan this kind of metre with bold for the first three beats and bold-underline for the fourth, to mark its unalliterated difference.

It embarks with a with a bang bang sucking breath breath from the from the lungs lungs And rolls rolls on di on directly as rapid rapid as as light lightning.

The speed speed and the and the splen splendour come spill spilling like wine wine Compellingly per perfect and appealingly clear clear The most ven venerable invention conveniently sim simple.

Important to note that it is the stressed syllables syllables that matter: 'com that matter: 'compelling' and 'appealing' are perfectly legitimate alliteration words, as are 'invention' and 'convenient', 'rolls' and 'directly'. So long as the stress falls heavily enough on the syllable belonging to the alliterating consonant, everything's hotsy-totsy and right as a trivet. And I say again, because it might seem unusual after all the syllabic counting of the previous section of the book, IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW MANY SYLLABLES THERE ARE, ONLY HOW MANY BEATS IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW MANY SYLLABLES THERE ARE, ONLY HOW MANY BEATS. Occasionally, in defiance of the b-b-b-crash rule you may see the fourth beat alliterate with the others, but usually it does not.

Although I said that it does not matter where in each half of the line the stressed elements go, it is close enough to a rule to say that the fourth fourth stress (the stress (the CRASH CRASH) is very likely to be in the last word of the line, which may (like 'lightning' and 'simple' above) have a feminine ending.