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Alliterative meter

Meter
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Verse based on repetition of initial consonant sounds rather than syllable count

Detailed Definition
Alliterative meter is the stress-based, alliteration-driven prosody of Old English, Old Norse, and Middle English poetry, featuring two half-lines per full line, separated by caesura, with alliteration binding them; it prioritizes strong beats and sonic repetition over syllable count.
Example
Example in poetry:
Beowulf’s Old English lines use alliterative meter (e.g., “Fyrst forð gewát”); alliterative meter in William Langland’s “Piers Plowman”; modern revival in Simon Armitage’s “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”; alliterative meter stresses 2–4 alliterating syllables per half-line without rhyme
Additional Notes
Verse measuring rhythm by stress and alliteration rather than syllable count. Related to strong-stress meter and Anglo-Saxon prosody. Each line typically has four stresses with alliterating sounds linking hemistics.
Also Known As
Consonantal meter Letter-pattern measure Alliterative measure Germanic stress-meter Alliterative verse
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