Paul Deane is a theoretical linguist by training (Ph.D. 1987, M.A.1983, University of Chicago.) Between 1987 and 1993 he worked in a university setting, and published a variety of academic works, including Grammar in Mind and Brain: Explorations in Cognitive Syntax (Mouton de Gruyter, 1993) and articles in various journals including Lingua, Cognitive Linguistics, and Metaphor and Symbolic Activity. From 1994 to the present he has worked in an industrial setting as a lexicographer and computational linguist. He is currently employed by theEducational Testing Service as a research scientist. Previous employers include Text Analysis International and Inquizit (now Meaning Master), both in southern California, and Dataware Technologies in Ottawa, Canada.

His longstanding interest in poetry was rekindled by his involvement with an online community, Elendor MUSH, focused on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. As part of his involvement with the interactive literature of the MUSH environment, he wrote several epic-length poems in alliterative verse. This experience led him (rather naturally) to the conclusion that alliterative poetry is an excellent vehicle for poetic expression.

He currently lives in Lawrenceville, New Jersey and is working on a variety of projects, including his translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and various other works including a collaboration on a fantasy novel.

His poetry on this site include:

• Fifty Days Further: A Morality Play
• Freeway Dawn, a commuter's meditation
• Welcome to our Website, a commentary on the dot.com bubble
• What a Perfect Poem, a sample of the flyting form once beloved for insult and abuse
• An Excerpt from the long fanfic poem, "The Redemption of Daeron"
set in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
• A Cry to Heaven
  What one of the psalms of David might have sounded like if it had been composed in alliterative/accentual verse. This poem uses six-beat alliterative lines with internal rhyme.