1. The long line is divided by a caesura into two half lines, of which the second is the more strictly built so that the rhythm may be well marked. Each half line normally contains two principal stresses, e.g. _And wént on his wáy || with his wýȝe óne_ 6. _Þat schulde téche hym to tóurne || to þat téne pláce_ 7. But three stresses are not uncommonly found in the first half line: _Brókeȝ býled and bréke || bi bónkkeȝ abóute_ 14; and, even for the simpler forms in Old and Middle English, the two-stress analysis has its opponents. 2. The two half lines are bound together by alliteration. In alliteration _ch_, _st_, _s(c)h_, _sk_, and usually _sp_, are treated as single consonants (see lines 64, 31, 15, 99, 25); any vowel may alliterate with any other vowel, e.g. _Þis ~ó~ritore is ~v́gly || with ~é~rbeȝ ouergrówen_ 122; and, contrary to the practice of correct OE. verse, _h_ may alliterate with vowels in _Gawayne_: _~H~álde þe now þe ~h~ýȝe ~h~óde || þat ~Á~rþur þe ráȝt_ 229. _The ~h~áþel ~h~éldet hym fró || and on his ~á~x résted_ 263. 3. In correct OE. verse the alliteration falls on one or both of the two principal stresses of the first half line, and invariably on the first stress only of the second half line. This is the ordinary ME. type: _Þat schulde ~t~éche hym to ~t~óurne || to þat ~t~éne pláce_ 7; though verses with only one alliterating syllable in the first half line, e.g. _Bot Í wyl to þe ~ch~ápel || for ~ch~áunce þat may fálle_ 64, are less common in ME. than in OE. But in ME. the fourth stress sometimes takes the alliteration also: _Þay ~cl~ómben bi ~cl~ýffeȝ || þer ~cl~éngeȝ þe ~c~ólde_ 10. And when there is a third stress in the first half line, five syllables may alliterate: _~M~íst ~m~úged on þe ~m~ór || ~m~ált on þe ~m~óunteȝ_ 12. In sum, Middle English verse is richer than Old English in alliteration. 4. In all these verses the alliteration of the first stress in the second half line, which is essential in Old English, is maintained; but it is sometimes neglected, especially when the alliteration is otherwise well marked: _With ~h~éȝe ~h~élme on his ~h~éde || his láunce in his ~h~ónde_ (129; cp. 75), where the natural stress cannot fall on _his_. 5. So far attention has been confined to the stressed syllables, around which the unstressed syllables are grouped. Clearly the richer the alliteration, the more freedom will be possible in the treatment of the unstressed syllables without undue weakening of the verse form. In the first two lines of _Beowulf_— _Hwæt we Gárdéna || in géardágum Þéodcýninga || þrým gefrúnon—_