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Examines current views ranging from linguistic and generative metrics, and philological studies to editing.
List of contents
Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction C. B. McCully and J. J. Anderson; 2. Clashing stress in the meters of Old, Middle, and Renaissance English Thomas Cable; 3. Purely metrical replacements for Kuhn's laws Geoffrey Russom; 4. Domain-end phenomena and metrical templates in Old English verse C. B. McCully; 5. Can Old English rhythm be reconstructed Wolfgang Obst; 6. On recent theories of metrics and rhythm in Beowulf Robert P. Stockwell; 7. Non-primary stress in Middle English accentual-syllabic verse Donka Minkova; 8. Systematic sound-symbolism in the long alliterative line in Beowulf and Sir Gawain Marie Borroff; 9. Non-aa/ax patterns in Middle English alliterative long-line verse A. T. E. Matonis; 10. The prosody of Middle English Pearl and the alliterative lyric tradition Richard H. Osberg; 11. Alliterative patterning and the editing of Middle English poetry Gerrit H. V. Bunt; 12. Reconsidering Chaucer's prosody Gilbert Youmans; 13. Chaucer Gower and the history of the hendecasyllable Martin J. Duffell; 14. Libertine scribes and maidenly editors: meditations on textual criticism and metrics Hoyt N. Duggan; References; Index.
Summary
This volume identifies historical metrics as an important discipline within English studies and raises significant questions about the composition and transmission of early English verse. The keynote introduction by Thomas Cable identifies major issues within the field. A distinguished team of contributors covers linguistics, and philological and editorial topics.
