Forgotten Ground Regained
Poets and Writers
Introduction
The popular perception is that alliterative poetry is something that only happened in the middle ages (unless it was witten by J.R.R. Tolkien)
The popular perception couldn't be more wrong.
The links on this page will provide a sense of the great variety of alliterative poetry that has been written in the 20th and (especially) the 21st Century by practicing poets.
Note that I include authors on this page if they have written any of the following:
- Strict alliterative meter, where the poet has taken care to follow the rules of Old English, Norse, or Middle English alliterative verse
- Loose alliterative meter, where the poet roughly follows traditional alliterative norms, but sometimes allows alliterations to be missed or places alliteration in locations forbidden in traditional alliterative verse, such as on the last stressed syllable of a line.
- Innovative alliterative meter, where the poet makes strict structural use of alliteration, but according to different rules or patterns than in traditional alliterative verse
- Alliterative free verse, where strong-stress alliteration is used systematically (but organically) to link ideas within and across adjacent lines
The strict and loose alliterative poetry that I document definitely derive from an interest in historical alliterative meters. But the alliterative free verse poems I have found seem to represent a rather different beast: a case of poets rediscovering the power of strong-stress alliteration to connect the phrasal lines of free verse to produce powerful rhythmic and oratorical effects. There may also be some influence from African-American oratory (which always appreciated the power of alliteration), and the shift toward oral delivery of poetry, in slams and out, with our without a rap beat ... though this is speculation. But the phenomenon seems to be real. Which means, maybe we are approaching a fusion moment, when the old and the new alliterative styles create a new space of poetic possibilities.
While it is important to consider a whole range of influences that have led to the present moment, it is important to remember that using alliterative verse forms has deep roots in modern poetry, going back to Ezra Pound and the early modernists. In modern poetry, writing alliterative verse has always been respectable; it's just that until recently, not that many people wanted to do so.
Now many of them do.
Published Writers and Poets on the Author Page
Others
Note: The poetry linked here ranges in quality from novice work to brilliant. It is probably just the tenth of the iceberg that shows above the ocean. There is almost certainly much more out there. Send me links if you find them ... use the following email, making the standard substiution: pdeane[at]alliteration.net