Eurhythmic dips in Middle English alliterative verse

The structure of the a-verse in Middle English alliterative meter remains unclear. One of the most controversial issues concerns the a-verse end, more specifically, the number of syllables in the final dip. Scholars such as Judith Jefferson and Ad Putter, and Noriko Inoue and Myra Stokes argued tha...

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Main Author: NORIKO INOUE
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Ledizioni 2024-05-01
Series:Filologia Germanica
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Online Access:https://www.ledijournals.com/ojs/index.php/filologiagermanica/article/view/2426
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author NORIKO INOUE
author_facet NORIKO INOUE
author_sort NORIKO INOUE
collection DOAJ
description The structure of the a-verse in Middle English alliterative meter remains unclear. One of the most controversial issues concerns the a-verse end, more specifically, the number of syllables in the final dip. Scholars such as Judith Jefferson and Ad Putter, and Noriko Inoue and Myra Stokes argued that while the second half-line (the b-verse) must not end with a long dip, the first half-line (the a-verse) can. But Nicolay Yakovlev argued that final long dips are prohibited in a-verses as well. In this essay, therefore, I will re-consider the “final dip” and see whether the a-verse can indeed end with a long dip. I shall show two things. Firstly, the long final dip is an essential part of the rhythmic structure of the two-beat a-verse and serves to generate “eurhythmic” verses with dips of two or three syllables. Secondly, Yakovlev’s three-lift a-verse theory and his principles of scansion based on grammatical categories would unnecessarily eliminate a long final dip that, in my opinion, is rhythmically essential in terms of eurhythmy.
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spelling doaj-art-d7dc6f19da7d46c0802e955cec6b27872025-08-20T03:27:43ZdeuLedizioniFilologia Germanica2036-89922024-05-011510.14672/fg.v15i.2426Eurhythmic dips in Middle English alliterative verseNORIKO INOUE The structure of the a-verse in Middle English alliterative meter remains unclear. One of the most controversial issues concerns the a-verse end, more specifically, the number of syllables in the final dip. Scholars such as Judith Jefferson and Ad Putter, and Noriko Inoue and Myra Stokes argued that while the second half-line (the b-verse) must not end with a long dip, the first half-line (the a-verse) can. But Nicolay Yakovlev argued that final long dips are prohibited in a-verses as well. In this essay, therefore, I will re-consider the “final dip” and see whether the a-verse can indeed end with a long dip. I shall show two things. Firstly, the long final dip is an essential part of the rhythmic structure of the two-beat a-verse and serves to generate “eurhythmic” verses with dips of two or three syllables. Secondly, Yakovlev’s three-lift a-verse theory and his principles of scansion based on grammatical categories would unnecessarily eliminate a long final dip that, in my opinion, is rhythmically essential in terms of eurhythmy. https://www.ledijournals.com/ojs/index.php/filologiagermanica/article/view/2426Middle Englishfinal diprhythmic structure
spellingShingle NORIKO INOUE
Eurhythmic dips in Middle English alliterative verse
Filologia Germanica
Middle English
final dip
rhythmic structure
title Eurhythmic dips in Middle English alliterative verse
title_full Eurhythmic dips in Middle English alliterative verse
title_fullStr Eurhythmic dips in Middle English alliterative verse
title_full_unstemmed Eurhythmic dips in Middle English alliterative verse
title_short Eurhythmic dips in Middle English alliterative verse
title_sort eurhythmic dips in middle english alliterative verse
topic Middle English
final dip
rhythmic structure
url https://www.ledijournals.com/ojs/index.php/filologiagermanica/article/view/2426
work_keys_str_mv AT norikoinoue eurhythmicdipsinmiddleenglishalliterativeverse