Topic summary
Old English Poetry
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Old English literature.
Alliteration and assonance
Old English poetry alliterates, meaning that a sound is repeated throughout a line, generally taken from the first syllable of the first stressed word in a line. Alliteration is based on sound rather than letter. For instance, in the first line of The Wanderer, "Oft him anhaga are gebideð", "Often the loner finds grace for himself", the 'o' of 'oft', and 'a' in 'anhaga' and 'are' all alliterate. Prefixes such as 'ge-' are always unstressed and therefore not part of alliterative patterns, while consonant clusters, for example 'st' or 'sp', may only alliterate with themselves, not any word beginning with 's'.