A Field Guide to Alliterative Verse

Alliterative Meter versus Accentual Tetrameter

This is a good point to deal with a common opinion about alliterative verse, one which is repeated quite a lot, but is not truly accurate in my opinion. This is the idea that the defining characteristic of alliterative verse is that it contains four strong stresses, and that the placement of unaccented syllables is pretty much free. It is possible to write such accentual verse, and to use alliteration in it frequently, but it is not true -- as is sometimes argued -- that THAT is the definition of alliterative verse. I do not think it is, for reasons that the preceding pages of this guide should make clear. It is an entirely different form of poetry, with separate strengths and weaknesses.
The Sullivan and Murphy translations from Beowulf on this site is an excellent example of accentual tetrameter. And if we try to analyse it using the tools developed thus far we get a fundamentally different picture than we get from the verses by Tolkien. Consider the following lines from their translation:
Fingers fractured. The fiend spun round; the soldier stepped closer. Grendel sought somehow to slip that grasp and escape, flee to the fens; but his fingers were caught in too fierce a grip. His foray had failed;
Here is what the analysis would look like, using all-caps to mark syllables alliterating within the same line:
x x x x x x x x FINGers FRACtured. S w S w x x x x x x x x x x the FIEND spun round w S S w x x x x x x x x x x x xthe SOLdier stepped closer. w S w S S w x x x x x x Grendel SOUGHT S w S x x x x x x x x x x SOMEhow to SLIP S W w S x x x x x x x x x x that grasp and escape, w S W w S
 x x x x x x x FLEE to the FENS; S w w S x x x x x x x x x x but his FINGers were caught W w S w w S
 x x x x xx x x x xin too FIERCE a grip.w W S w S x x x x x x x x x x x His FORay had FAILED; w S W w S
The striking thing to note is that there is no consistent connection between the peak stresses in each half-line and the placement of alliteration. Some lines (i.e., 1, and 4) fit the rhythmic pattern of alliterative verse. But lines 2 and 3 fail to match up: in (2), the alliterating stresses are not those most naturally used as pivots; in (3) there is no alliteration on the second half-line, unless the sc- of escape is counted; but if so, alliteration on the last stress, like the alliteration on the last stress of (5), runs against the basic Anglo-Saxon pattern.
In short, the translation does not consistently link rhythm to alliteration, nor is it intended to. The correct way to analyse such verse is in terms of poetic feet (trochees, iambs, anapests, dactyls, etc.) and not in terms of half-lines. In those terms, this verse is utterly regular: four feet per line, but accentual as there is no consistent choice of type of foot. Using / for the main beat in each foot, x for unaccented syllables, and | to separate feet, the analysis looks something like the following:
/ x | / x Fingers | fractured. x / | x / The fiend | spun round;
 x / x x / x the soldier | stepped closer. / x | / Grendel | sought
 / x | x / somehow | to slip x / | x x / that grasp | and escape,
 / x | x / flee to | the fens; x x / | x x / but his fing | ers were caught
 x x / | x / in too fierce | a grip. x / x | x / His foray | had failed;
In this analysis, alliteration plays no structural role, and indeed the placement of alliteration in these lines is not dictated by rhythm. Four-stress accentual verse and Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse are very similar, in that the rhythm is not consistent with a single choice of foot; but there are key differences. In accentual verse, the number of strong stresses is critical and cannot be varied under any circumstances, as the stress-count is the only indicator of rhythm. Not all Anglo-Saxon half-lines clearly have two and only two stresses, as the number of stresses is not what governs the meter. In accentual verse, the placement of alliteration is fairly free; in Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse by contrast, it is strongly constrained by the rhythmic structure of the line and half-line.
The contrast between Germanic alliterative verse and alliterating accentual verse becomes particularly stark when lightly accented syllables, such as pronouns and prepositions, are allowed to participate in the alliteration pattern. Consider, for example, the following poem, first in Icelandic, then in English accentual translation, from the Jonas Halgrimsson website. Metrical alliterations are bolded and underlined.
Íslands minni By Jonas Hillgrimsson Þið þekkið fold með blíðri brá, og bláum tindi fjalla, og svanahljómi, silungsá, og sælu blómi valla, og bröttum fossi, björtum sjá og breiðum jökulskalla — drjúpi' hana blessun drottins á um daga heimsins alla.
The indented lines are the Icelandic equivalent of the b-verses in Old or Middle English alliterative verse, in a rhyming form that is a descendant of Old Norse ljodahattr meter, which requires 4 stresses on odd numbered lines, 3 stresses on even numbered lines. The first stress in even-numbered lines is what is traditionally termed, following Snorri Sturlusson, the head-stave. It has to alliterate with two stresses in the preceding odd-numbered line. Notice that in Icelandic, the head-stave is naturally the strongest stress in its line.
Now here is a translation of this poem into modern English. It follows the Icelandic rules for stresses and alliteation, but allows stresses on grammatical function words to count as the head-stave.
A Toast to Iceland Our land of lakes forever fair below blue mountain summits, of swans, of salmon leaping where the silver water plummets, of glaciers swelling broad and bare above earth's fiery sinews — the Lord pour out his largess there as long as earth continues!
To my ear, at least, the alliterations on “l” in below and “b” in above are very easy to miss, and even the alliteration on “l” in “as long as” seems very light. Only the third and fourth lines (“of swans, of salmon leaping where / the silver water plummets”) have the same driving rhythm as the original Icelandic. Which is to say: the Icelandic poem is in Germanic alliterative meter, with the alliteration placed to link the strongest stresses in the paired half-lines. The English translation is an accentual imitation of the original.
Both meters can be used to powerful effect. But they are not the same.
Copyright ©2003, Paul Deane
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