And þér heo sculen wúnien | évere buten énde.
Here we have Septenaries (ll. 1, 4, 7) and Alexandrines (ll. 2, 3, 5, 6, 8) intermixed in ll. 1–8, eight-foot long lines resolved by means of sectional rhyme into four-foot lines in ll. 9–12, and four-beat rhyming alliterative long lines of the freer type in ll. 13–16. The easy intermixture of metres may be explained by the fact that in all these different long-lined metrical forms four principal stresses are prominent amid the rest, as we have indicated by accents (´).
§ 142. In the Bestiary this mixture of metrical forms has assumed still greater proportions, inasmuch as alongside of the long-lined rhyming Septenaries and alliterative long lines there are found also Layamon’s short-lined rhyming verses and Septenary lines resolved into short verses by middle rhyme.
The following passages may more closely illustrate the metrical construction of this poem; in the first place, ll. 384–97:
A wìlde dér is, þàt is fúl | of féle wíles,
Fóx is hère tó-nàme, | for hìre quéðscípe;
Húsebondes hìre háten, | for hère hárm-dédes:
þe cóc and tè capún | ge fècheð ófte ìn ðe tún,
And te gándre ànd te gós, | bì ðe nécke and bì ðe nóz,
Háleð is tò hire hóle; | forðí man hìre hátieð,