Title Background

Middle English Meter and Its Theoretical Implications.

Middle English Meter and Its Theoretical Implications.

Notes a substantial agreement with Duggan, independently arrived at, regarding the metrical shape of the b-verse up to but not including the last syllable, but criticizes Duggan’s method as circular reasoning, inasmuch as it “uses hypothesized metrical structures to hypothesize an archetype, and it then uses that hypothesized archetype as evidence in support of the hypothesized metrical structures.” Reiterates his conclusions in support of phonological final -e in West Midland alliterative poetry whenever there was an etymological or inflectional syllable in OE and whenever there was an original final vowel or an adjectival inflection in a borrowing from OF or ON (with certain consistent exceptions).