Lift-Patterns in Old English Verse

Abstract

In the study of Old English metrics (and of old Germanic versification as a whole) heed has been given to feet or measures, but less has been said about rhythmical patterns as such. The present paper is an attempt to classify OE lines of verse in terms of rhythmical pattern alone; more precisely, in terms of the sequences of rhythmical high points which these lines exhibit. The one-sided character of such a classification will be obvious.' If I undertake it nevertheless, I do so in the hope that it will throw light on the subject and lead to further work in the field. The rhythm of Old English verse grew naturally out of the prose rhythm, by a process of heightening and lowering. A metrically heightened syllable may be called a lift (German hebung); a metrically lowered syllable may be called a drop (German senkung). The lifts in a line of verse regularly coincided with syllables which would (or might) take stress if the line were read as prose; in like manner, the drops coincided with syllables which would (or might) be without prose stress. In other words, the metrical heightening and lowering never did violence to the natural prose rhythm, which depended on the sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables. We may further distinguish three kinds of lifts. A major or primary lift is a stressed syllable metrically heightened and reinforced by alliteration or rime. A minor or secondary lift is a stressed syllable metrically heightened but not reinforced by alliteration or rime. A tertiary lift differs from a secondary in that the metrical heightening takes place at a lower level. Primary, secondary and tertiary lifts will here be symbolized by the numerals 1. 2 and 3. A hyphen will be used to symbolize the boundary between the on-verse (or first half-line) and the off-verse (or second half-line) of an OE alliterative line. The initial sound of each lift will be italicized in the lines quoted. Upon occasion the stave-pattern (or alliterative pattern) of the line as well as its lift-pattern will be given.2