Bücher von Geoffrey (Brown University Russom

This comprehensive study traces the evolution of verse structure in Old and Middle English poetry from the earliest alliterative poems to iambic pentameter. It provides a general theory of poetic form with a glossary of technical terms and explores how poetic form is perceived by the human mind.

This 1998 book is a clear and concise account of early Germanic alliterative verse which explains how such verse was treated by the Beowulf poet. It should interest scholars of Old English and related Germanic languages, as well as linguists and those concerned with poetic metre.