The fragment Maran is valuable, not for its theme or language (which are both in parts immature, uncertain, and childish), but for its rhythm, which reveals a new music, and properly handled might afford a contribution to literature and the melody of the world.

The poem is an attempt to recover for the English tongue a lost heritage—that bequeathed by the old Saxon epicists (see Bridges' Christmas Carol, 1913)--

Stress and alliteration.

Lyrical; stanzas superficially resembling Norman convention. Should be intoned, with emphasis on each stressed word, with special care to mark the structure-rhymes of the even lines. Only one accentuated syllable in each line is unalliterative.

Thewínd waswíling over the lánd wíldly

Sóng-síghing, and the móon

Lánguishing, a lóve-lórn máiden

Pále-péering from a shróud.

1. x —¹ x —² x x x x —³ —⁴ x

2. —¹ —² x x x —³

3. —¹ x x x —² —³—⁴ x

4. —¹ —² x x x —³

The number of unaccentuated syllables (x) does not matter. Accentuated syllables (—) must be four and three alternately. Second and fourth lines coincide in structure.