<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><p>The fragment <em>Maran</em> 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.</p><p>The poem is an attempt to recover for the English tongue a lost heritage—that bequeathed by the old Saxon epicists (see Bridges' <em>Christmas Carol</em>, <em>1913</em>)--</p><p><em>Stress and alliteration</em>.</p><p>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.</p><p class="line">The<em>w</em>índ was<em>w</em>íling over the lánd <em>w</em>íldly</p><p class="line"><em>S</em>óng-<em>s</em>íghing, and the móon</p><p class="line"><em>L</em>ánguishing, a <em>l</em>óve-<em>l</em>órn máiden</p><p class="line"><em>P</em>ále-<em>p</em>éering from a shróud.</p><p>1. x —<sup>1</sup> x —<sup>2</sup> x x x x —<sup>3</sup> —<sup>4</sup> x</p><p>2. —<sup>1</sup> —<sup>2</sup> x x x —<sup>3</sup></p><p>3. —<sup>1</sup> x x x —<sup>2</sup> —<sup>3</sup>—<sup>4</sup> x</p><p>4. —<sup>1</sup> —<sup>2</sup> x x x —<sup>3</sup></p><p>The number of unaccentuated syllables (x) does not matter. Accentuated syllables (—) must be four and three alternately. Second and fourth lines coincide in structure.</p></body></html> · Great War