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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. The most salient feature of Old English poetry is its heavy use of alliteration. == Alliteration == The basic Anglo-Saxon poetic line consists of two half-lines, connected by alliteration. This means that there is a word or syllable in the second half-line, which will alliterate with one or more important words or syllables in the first half-line. These alliterated words or syllables will have more stress.〔Frederic G Cassidy and Richard M. Ringler, eds. Bright’s Old English Grammar and Reader. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. 1971), p. 276〕 Consonants will always alliterate with consonants, but a vowel is allowed to alliterate with any other vowel. As in all Old English poetry, we see this alliterative form in the “Finnsburg Fragment” (alliterated sounds are in bold): Ac onwacnigeað nū, wīgend mīne〔"The Finnsburg Fragment", line 10〕 “But awake now, my warriors,” ealra ǣrest eorðbūendra,〔"The Finnsburg Fragment", line 32〕 of all first the men The words that contain alliterated syllables are also very important, because not all syllables can be alliterated. There is a hierarchy of alliteration; nouns and verbs are almost consistently alliterated, whereas ‘helping’ words such as pronouns and prepositions are almost never alliterated. The alliteration and positioning of these syllables are what help us to assign stress to certain words, and not others. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Old English metre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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