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The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written in alliterative verse.. In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal device to indicate the underlying metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. [1]
For example, S sounds can imply danger or make the audience feel as if they are being deceived. [37] Other sounds can likewise generate positive or negative responses. [38] Alliteration serves to "intensify any attitude being signified". [39]: 6–7 An example is in John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, in which he uses alliteration 21 times.
Old English metre is the conventional name given to the poetic metre in which English language poetry was composed in the Anglo-Saxon period. The best-known example of poetry composed in this verse form is Beowulf, but the vast majority of Old English poetry belongs to the same tradition.
Bagme Bloma ("Flower of the Trees"), an 18-line poem in Gothic in a trochaic metre, with irregular end-rhymes and irregular alliteration in each line. It is the only poem to be printed in Gothic. It was unofficially published in the rare and soon withdrawn 1936 Songs for the Philologists; [8] also in Tom Shippey's The Road to Middle-Earth. [9]
The poem Beowulf, which often begins the traditional canon of English literature, is the most famous work of Old English literature. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has also proven significant for historical study, preserving a chronology of early English history.
The earliest Latin poems, unlike early Germanic and English poetry, do not have obligatory alliteration. Most of the fragments of the early accentual Saturnian poetry listed by Lindsay exhibit no alliteration, although some do, for example the following line, attributed to Naevius (c.270–c.201 BC), which has alliteration of M, P, and T:
Layamon's poem, however, is longer than both and includes an enlarged section on the life and exploits of King Arthur. It is written in the alliterative verse style commonly used in Middle English poetry by rhyming chroniclers , the two halves of the alliterative lines being often linked by rhyme as well as by alliteration.
Accentual verse has been widespread in English poetry since its earliest recording, with Old English poetry written in a special form of accentual verse termed alliterative verse, of which Beowulf is a notable example. Anglo-Saxon poetry generally added two further basic elements to the basic four-beat accentual verse pattern: alliteration of ...