A History of English Versification

by J. Schipper

and there are even found a certain number of verses without any alliteration at all in Joseph of Arimathie:

Whan Jóseph hérde þer-of, | he bád hem not demáyȝen. J. A. 31.

In such cases it may sometimes be noticed that a line which has no internal alliteration is linked by alliteration with a preceding or with a following line, in the same way as was to be observed already in the last century of the Old English period (cf. p. 50):

Bot on the Cristynmes dáye, | whene they were álle sémblyde,

That cómliche cónquerour | cómmaundez hym selvyne.

Morte Arth. 70–1.

Again an excess of alliteration is found, which happens in different ways, either by admitting four alliterative sounds in one line (a a a a) as was sometimes done even in Old English:

In a sómer séson | when sófte was þe sónne. P. P. Prol. 1;

or by retaining the same alliterative sound in several consecutive lines, e.g. :