Old English metre Old English metre Old English metre is the conventional name given to the poetic metre in which English language poetry was composed in the Anglo-Saxon period. The best-known example of poetry composed in this verse form is "Beowulf", but the vast majority of Old English poetry belongs to the same tradition. The most salient feature of Old English poetry is its heavy use of alliteration. The basic Anglo-Saxon poetic line consists of two half-lines, connected by alliteration. This means that there is a word or syllable in the second half-line, which will alliterate with one or more important words or
The Old English Boethius and digressions throughout explaining allusions. Many of these additions come from glosses to contemporary Latin manuscripts of the "Consolation", which were obviously used in the translation process. There is also a significant number of references to Christianity within the translation which are entirely absent in Boethius's work. Sometime after the composition of the prose translation, someone adapted the prose translations of Boethius's metres into Old English alliterative verse. They are an important example of relatively securely dateable Old English poetry. The Old English Boethius The Old English Boethius is an Old English translation/adaptation of the sixth-century "Consolation of Philosophy" by