IV. Early Middle English Period
Attempt at merely Syllabic Uniformity with Unbroken Iambic Run and no Rhyme.
Orm.
And nu | icc wil|le shæ|wenn yuw
summ-del | withth God|ess hellp|e
Off thatt | Judiss|kenn follk|ess lac
thatt Drih|htin wass | full cwem|e.
The moral of this (whether it be written as above in eights and sevens or continuously as "fifteeners") is unmistakable, as stated before: the writer, for all his scrupulous indication of short vowels, seems to care no more than if he were a modern Frenchman for syllabic quantity, or even for accent. He will have his fifteen syllables, his pause at the eighth, and his sing-song run of seven dissyllabic batches and a feminine ending. But, will he nill he, he impresses—with whatever sing-song effect and whatever merciless iteration—the iambic beat throughout his whole enormous work.
V. Early Middle English Period
Conflict or Indecision between Accentual Rhythm and Metrical Scheme.
Layamon.
1. {Þa an|swære|de Vor|tiger—
{of ælc | an vu|ele he | wes wær.
2. {Nulle ¦ ich heom ¦ belauen ||
{bi mine ¦ quike live.
3. {For Hen|gest is | hider | icumen,
{He is | mi fa|der and ich | his sune.
4. {And ich ¦ habbe ¦ to leof-monne ||
{his dohter ¦ Rowenne.
These four couplets (continuous in the original) exhibit perfectly the process which was going on. (2) is a rather shapeless example of the old scarcely metrical Anglo-Saxon line with a roughly trochaic rhythm; and (4) is not very different. But (3) is a not quite successful, though recognisable, attempt at a rhymed (it is actually assonanced) iambic dimeter or octosyllabic couplet. And (1) is this couplet complete at all points in rhythm, metre, and rhyme—capable, in fact, of being exactly quantified and rendered exactly into modern English, all but the dropped final e: