A comparative study of Old English metre

Booknews

Based on a theory that ancient Italic poetry exhibited the same accentual meter that Germanic and Celtic poetry used in the Middle Ages, and that the rise of accentual poetry in early medieval Latin verse was a resurrection of the early form from beneath the ruins of classicism, uses those poems to illuminate some of the persistent obscurities in Old English meter. Posits a common Indo-European meter rather than recent borrowings. Assumes a knowledge of both Old English and Medieval Latin. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)