Middle English Verse: Structure and Organisation

Abstract

Whereas Old English verse is almost exclusively alliterative, and, as we have seen, there was also a distinctive Middle English alliterative tradition, which flourished particularly in the fourteenth century and fifteenth centuries, the greater part of Middle English verse is patterned on end-rhyme. In addition, we find that the poets of rhymed poems often make use of alliterative features for ornament, just as the alliterative poets did of rhyme. Syntactic patterns are profoundly affected by the poet’s adherence to one or the other of these traditions, and a brief consideration of the basic differences between rhymed and alliterative verse is therefore a good starting point for consideration of the structure and organisation of the verse.