The second chapter of volume I was devoted to a summary consideration of the structural elements of Homeric verse – that is, the composition of whole verses from phrases, often standard or formular, that filled the regular colon-slots; together with the formation of longer sentences from distinct verses through various kinds of cumulation and enjambment. Much of the style and language of Homer at the microscopic level clearly depends on an oral repertory of standard but easily varied phrases, whole verses and short passages welded together so as to produce the subtle variety and rich texture of the poems, in which the traditional and the expected are held in tension with the innovative and the individual.

In a sense that is simply an extension, with a strong degree of formalization, of what any composer does with a vocabulary of single words. Oral poetry depends on the practised ability to deploy preformed elements of language and meaning in larger units than those of ordinary utterance or written literature. But this kind of composition also makes use of other standard components on a broader scale: of typical actions and ideas that are used and reused in different combinations and contexts. These may vary in extent from minor and specific motifs, as of a warrior stripping armour from his victim, to major and more generalized themes, as of a prince refusing to fight because of an insult to his honour.