The pronoun selfand the pronouns compounded with the prefix ǣ (ǣghwā, ǣghwylc, &c.) are usually accented, and alliterate if they form the first arsis of the hemistich, as
sḗlran gesṓhte þǣm be him selfa dḗah.Beow. 1840.
hǽfde ǣ́ghwæðer énde gefḗred.Beow. 2845.
Prepositions, conjunctions, and particles are not as a rule accented, but prepositions if followed by an enclitic pronoun take the accent and alliterate, as
éaldum éarne and ǣ́fter þón. Phoen. 238.
nis únder mḗ ǣ́nig ṓðer. Riddle xli. 86.
Whether words of these classes, standing in the first arsis of the first hemistich along with another alliterating word, were intended also to alliterate is somewhat uncertain, but it is probable that they were so, as in
mid þȳ mǣ́stan mǽgenþrỳmme cýmeð.Crist 1009.
These laws of accentuation are strictly observed only in the older poetry; by the end of the tenth century, in Byrhtnoth, the Metres of Boethius and the Psalms, they are frequently neglected.
§ 36. Arrangement and relationship of verse and sentence. The following rules hold good in general for the distribution of the sentence or parts of the sentence between the hemistichs of the verse. Two distinct pauses occur in every alliterative line, one (commonly called the caesura) between the first and second hemistichs, the other at the end of the line, and these pauses are determined by the syntactical construction; that is to say, they coincide with the end of a clause or lesser member of the sentence. The hemistich must contain such parts of the sentence as belong closely together; and such coherent parts, as, for example, a pronoun and noun to which it refers or adverb with adjective, must not be separated from one another by the caesura, unless the pronoun or adverb is placed in the second arsis of the hemistich, as