or even five such syllables between two adjacent stresses. To a reader accustomed to our modern syllabic metres such an accumulation of unstressed syllables might be strange and difficult, and in this version I have avoided any sequence of more than three.
The two chief rhythms in a verse are the “rising” × × / × × /, and the “falling” (×) / × × / ×; sometimes the same rhythm runs through a whole line, e.g. :
(rising) When the siége and the assáult | were ceásed at Tróy (falling) Dríving to the dáis | no dánger affráy’d him, but the half-line is the unit.
Occasional variants of the rhythms in the second verse are:
- × / × / × e.g. | through reálms so mány
- × / × / e.g. | at Gáwain’s hánds
- / × × / e.g. | Árthur my náme
A third rhythm, rare except in the second verse, is the “rising-falling” or circumflex × ×/\×, e.g. :
| with a wróth clàmour or
| by the búrn sìde
It makes a charming variation from the other two.
Long lines. Many lines have three stresses in the first verse. These I have usually simplified; when retained they have the stresses marked, unless the punctuation shows the caesura, e.g. :
And mány a bírd unblíthe on the bare twigs sitting.