But most this fact my wonder bred (Though known by all the nobly wise), It was the mountain stream that fed That fair green plain’s amenities.” 4. +Our oldest English Poetry.+-- The verse written by our old English writers was very different in form from the verse that appears now from the hands of Tennyson, or Browning, or Matthew Arnold. The old English or Anglo-Saxon writers used a kind of rhyme called +head-rhyme+ or +alliteration+; while, from the fourteenth century downwards, our poets have always employed +end-rhyme+ in their verses. “{L}ightly down {l}eaping he {l}oosened his helmet.” Such was the rough old English form. At least three words in each long line were alliterative-- two in the first half, and one in the second. Metaphorical phrases were common, such as _war-adder_ for arrow, _war-shirts_ for armour, _whale’s-path_ or _swan-road_ for the sea, _wave-horse_ for a ship, _tree-wright_ for carpenter. Different statements of the same fact, different phrases for the same thing-- what are called +parallelisms+ in Hebrew poetry-- as in the line-- “Then saw they the sea head-lands-- the windy walls,” were also in common use among our oldest English poets. 5. +Beowulf.+-- The +Beowulf+ is the oldest poem in the English language. It is our “old English epic”; and, like much of our ancient verse, it is a war poem. The author of it is unknown. It was probably composed in the fifth century-- not in England, but on the Continent-- and brought over to this island-- not on paper or on parchment-- but in the memories of the old Jutish or Saxon vikings or warriors. It was not written down at all, even in England, till the end of the ninth century, and then, probably, by a monk of Northumbria. It tells among other things the story of how Beowulf sailed from Sweden to the help of Hrothgar, a king in Jutland, whose life was made miserable by a monster-- half man, half fiend-- named Grendel. For about twelve years this monster had been in the habit of creeping up to the banqueting-hall of King Hrothgar, seizing upon his thanes, carrying them off, and devouring them. Beowulf attacks and overcomes the dragon, which is mortally wounded, and flees away to die. The poem belongs both to the German and to the English literature; for it is written in a Continental English, which is somewhat different from the English of our own island. But its literary shape is, as has been said, due to a Christian writer of Northumbria; and therefore its written or printed form-- as it exists at present-- is not German, but English. Parts of this poem were often chanted at the feasts of warriors, where all sang in turn as they sat after dinner over their cups of mead round the massive oaken table. The poem consists of 3184 lines, the rhymes of which are solely alliterative.