Fáir Master Óliver, | thóu who at áll times
Mayst ópen thy héart | to our lórd and máster,
Téll us what tídings | thou hást to delíver;
For our héarts are grown héavy, | and whére shall we túrn to,
If thús the king’s glóry, | our gáin and salvátion,
Must gó down the wínd | amid glóom and despáiring.
The rhythm, together with the irregular use of alliteration, places these four-beat alliterative lines on the same level with those of the dramatic poems of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The same kind of versification is found in Longfellow’s translation of the late Old English poem on The Grave, and in James M. Garnett’s translations of Beowulf and Cynewulf’s Elene. On the other hand, George Stephens, in his translation of the Old English poem on The Phoenix, published 1844, not only adheres strictly to the laws of alliteration, but confines himself to Germanic words, sometimes even using inflexional forms peculiar to Middle English.
§ 74. We shall conclude this survey of the development of the four-beat alliterative line by giving a series of examples in reversed chronological order, beginning with writers of the present day and ending with the earliest remains of Old English poetry, in order to illustrate the identity in rhythmic structure of this metre in all periods of its history.
Nineteenth Century, End: