[472]. Altgermanische Poesie, pp. 228 f. See also Kluge, in Paul-Braune, Beiträge, IX. 462 f.
[473]. Uhland, Volkslieder, I. 78.
[474]. Variations may advance the sentence, or simply hold it; thus (Bareaz-Breiz):
Little Azénor the Pale is betrothed, but not to her lover,
Little Azénor the Pale is betrothed, not to her sweet “clerk”;
no advance; otherwise in a refrain:—
Come hearken, hearken, O folk,
Come hearken, hearken to the song!
which suggests the syntactic structure of old English poetry due to alliterative variation.
[475]. A single sentence to the single verse is indicated in all primitive poetry, and is still the rule in Russian folksong: Bistrom, Zeitschr. für Völkerpsy., V. 185. Progress lay both in intension and in extension,—regulation of the verse-parts, and combination of verses in a strophe. For example, an element like rime or assonance was used to bind verses now in couplets, now in a series like the old French tirade.