London Review of Books:
Who has the gall? Translating Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. “The rhythmic alliterative line was divided into two halves, each containing two (or in the first half-line originally three) main stresses ... The third stress (that is, the first stress of the second half-line) always alliterates with one or both of the stresses in the first half-line, but never with the fourth stress.” Yeow, pat your head and rub your stomach while parsing poetry ... and who is going to clean up all that alliter?
Page 1 of 1 pages
