Wel lónge ic hábbe chíld ibíen | on wórde ánd on déde;
þéȝh ic bí on wíntren éald, | to ȝíung ic ám on réde.
The other common licences of even-beat metre which affect the rhythm of the line, the metrical value of syllables, and the word-accent, also occur in the Moral Ode. Suppression of the anacrusis is very often met with; it occurs, for instance, in the first hemistich, in lines 1 and 4 above; in the second hemistich, ér ic hít iwíste l. 17, in both, þó þet hábbeð wél idón | éfter híre míhte, l. 175; so that a pure iambic couplet seldom occurs, although the iambic rhythm is, on the whole, predominant. The omission of unaccented syllables in the middle of the line is also often found (although many verses of this kind probably require emendation), as Ne léve nó mán to múchel 24; also in the second hemistich, as and wól éche dede 88. Transpositions of the accent are quite usual at the beginning of the first as well as of the second hemistich: Elde me ís bestólen ón 17; síððen ic spéke cúðe 9. Level stress is also not absent: For bétere is án elmésse bifóre 28. We often meet with elision, apocope, syncope, slurring of syllables, and the use of a disyllabic thesis both at the beginning of the line and in other positions: þo þet wél ne dóeþ þe wíle he múȝe 19; nís hit búte gámen and glíe 188. A noteworthy indication of want of skill in the handling of the Septenary in this first attempt is the frequent occurrence of a superfluous syllable at the close of the first hemistich, which should only admit of an acatalectic ending, e.g.: Hé scal cúme on úuele stéde | búte him Gód beo mílde 26; Eíðer to lútel ánd to múchel | scal þúnchen éft hem báthe 62, &c. The end of the second hemistich, on the other hand, in accordance with the structure of the metre, is in this poem always catalectic.
§ 137. The irregularity of the structure of the Septenary rhyming line of the Moral Ode stands in marked contrast with the regularity of the rhymeless Septenary verse of the Ormulum. The first hemistich here is always acatalectic, the second catalectic, and the whole line has never more nor less than fifteen syllables.
Hence the only metrical licences that occur here are elision, syncope, and apocope of the unaccented e of some inflexional endings, and the very frequent admission of level stress in disyllabic and polysyllabic words, which are to be found in all places in the line:
Icc þátt tiss Énnglissh háfe sétt | Ennglísshe ménn to láre,
Icc wáss þær þǽr I crísstnedd wáss | Orrmín bi náme némmnedd,
Annd ícc Orrmín full ínnwarrdlíȝ | wiþþ múð annd éc wiþþ hérrte.
Dedic. 322–7.