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  3. Reconstructing Alliterative Verse
  • Cited by 33
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    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      July 2017
      July 2017
      ISBN:
      9781316650516
      9781107154100
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316650516
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.48kg, 234 Pages
      Dimensions:
      Weight & Pages:
      • Subjects:
      Literature, Anglo Saxon and Medieval Literature
      Series:
      Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature (99)
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    Subjects:
    Literature, Anglo Saxon and Medieval Literature
    Series:
    Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature (99)
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    Book description

    The poetry we call 'alliterative' is recorded in English from the seventh century until the sixteenth, and includes Caedmon's 'Hymn', Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Piers Plowman. These are some of the most admired works of medieval English literature, and also among the most enigmatic. The formal practice of alliterative poets exceeded the conceptual grasp of medieval literary theory; theorists are still playing catch-up today. This book explains the distinctive nature of alliterative meter, explores its differences from subsequent accentual-syllabic forms, and advances a reformed understanding of medieval English literary history. The startling formal variety of Piers Plowman and other Middle English alliterative poems comes into sharper focus when viewed in diachronic perspective: the meter was in transition; to understand it, we need to know where it came from and where it was headed at the moment it died out.

    Reviews

    ‘Reconstructing Alliterative Verse: The Pursuit of a Medieval Meter advances our understanding ... as well as advanced students will find his discussion helpful. Academic libraries supporting English and Germanic studies programs should obtain a copy.’

    William F. Hodapp Source: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching (SMART)

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    Contents

    Contents
    • Chapter 2 - The Accentual Paradigm in Early English Metrics
      pp 44-66
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