- Sievers' Theory of Anglo-Saxon Meter
Eduard Sievers developed a theory of the meter of Anglo-SaxonAlliterative verse . This most likely would have been the theory of Anglo-Saxon prosody thatEzra Pound would have been familiar with.ref|zbcA line of Anglo-Saxon verse is made up to two half-lines. Each of these half-lines contains two main stresses (or 'lifts'). Sievers categorized three basic types of half-line that were used. Here a stressed syllable is represented by the symbol '/' and an unstressed syllable by the symbol 'x'.
He also noted that three possible types of half-line were not used:
*/ x x /
*/ / x x
*x x / /However the first two of these can be used if one of the 'dips' is changed into a half-stress (or 'half lift' ... notated here 'x́'):
References
#Brooke-Rose, Christine, "A ZBC of Ezra Pound," Faber and Faber, 1971. ISBN 0-571-09135-0 (page 88)
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