Steve Watson

Pope’s Theory of Metre in Old English

February 12, 2026 – 4:07 pm

According to Pope[1] the verses of OE poetry should be read so that one can beat time to the stresses in the same way that one can beat time to music. To emphasize this he uses musical notation to guide the reading of each syllable. He then proposes that the basic rhythmic structure of the poem is a straightforward four half-measures per verse. In A, D, and E this structure is almost explicit except that there is the possibility of anacrusis. Pope notes, however, that the anacrusis there can always be read in the time allotted to the final measure of the preceding verse.

The cases of B and C are more complex and involve the use of initial ‘rests,’ to continue the musical theme, in order to integrate the unimportant preliminary syllables into the basic rhythmic structure. The treatment differs according to the number of such syllables to be integrated. Thus:

• 1 syllable may be treated as anacrusis or as the up-beat of the first measure after a rest. (Prefixes are always to be treated as anacrusis.)
• 2 syllables may be anacrusis if the connection to the preceding verse is so close that they make a single phrase.
• Otherwise, 2 or more syllables are assigned to the first measure with an initial rest – unless they are so numerous as to fill the measure, in which case no rest is required.
• A 5^th syllable may form monosyllabic anacrusis

An example of this and of Pope’s notation is given for verse 3^a.

          hū^\ ðā æ^//þelin^\\gas
      | ♪ ♪|♪♪♪  ♪ |

Many of these rests occur at the beginning of stanzas, fits, verse paragraphs or poems. This poem, notably, should commence with a rest according to Pope’s system; thus:

          Hwæt^\, wē Gār^//-De^\\na     
      |  ♩  ³ ♪|♩ ♪  ♪|

The recognition of the presence of such rests in verses which are not preceded by other verses or which follow significant pauses requires an independent time-keeping device. Since the harp is often mentioned in the poetry itself as the proper accompaniment of the poem Pope proposes that it was the harp that performed the time-keeping function.

[1] Pope, John C. ((1942) 1966) The Rhythm of Beowulf. New Haven: Yale University Press

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