Upon these rules of accent and alliteration the strict form of
Anglo-Saxon verse was based. But when the Normans came they
brought a new form of poetry, and gradually rhymes began to take
the place of alliteration. Layamon wrote his Brut more than a
hundred years after the coming of the Normans, and although his
poem is in the main alliterative, sometimes he has rhyming lines
such as "mochel dal heo iwesten: mid harmen pen mesten," that
is:--
"Great part they laid waste:
With harm the most."
Sometimes even in translation the rhyme may be kept, as:--
"And faer forh nu to niht:
In to Norewaieze forh riht."
which can be translated:--
"And fare forth now to-night
Into Norway forth right."
At times, too, Layamon has neither rhyme nor alliteration in his
lines, sometimes he has both, so that his poem is a link between
the old poetry and the new.
I hope that you are not tired with this long explanation, for I
think if you take the trouble to understand it, it may make the
rest of this chapter more interesting.
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