A striking characteristic of Anglo-Saxon poetry is consonantal alliteration; that is, the repetition of the same consonant at the beginning of words in the same line:—
"Grendel gongan; Godes yrre baer."
Grendel going; God's anger bare.
The usual type of Anglo-Saxon poetry has two alliterations in the first half of the line and one in the second. The lines vary considerably in the number of syllables. The line from Beowulf quoted just above has nine syllables. The following line from the same poem has eleven:—
"Flota f=amig-heals, fugle gel=icost."
The floater foamy-necked, to a fowl most like.
This line, also from Beowulf has eight syllables:—
"N=ipende niht, and norðan wind."
Noisome night, and northern wind.
Vowel alliteration is less common. Where this is employed, the vowels are generally different, as is shown in the principal words of the following line:—
"On =ead, on =aeht, on eorcan st=an."
On wealth, on goods, on precious stone.
End rime is uncommon, but we must beware of thinking that there is no rhythm, for that is a pronounced characteristic.
Anglo-Saxon verse was intended to be sung, and hence rhythm and accent or stress are important. Stress and the length of the line are varied; but we usually find that the four most important words, two in each half of the line, are stressed on their most important syllable. Alliteration usually shows where to place three stresses. A fourth stress generally falls on a word presenting an emphatic idea near the end of the line.