Alliteration in Modern and Middle English: “Piers Plowman”

Abstract

William Langland’s 8000-line fourteenth-century poem Piers Plowman uses an alliterative rhyme scheme inherited from Old English in which, instead of a rhyme at the end of a line, at least three out of the four stressed syllables in each line begin with the same sound, and this is combined with a caesura at the mid-point of the line. Examples show that Langland does not obey the rules exactly, but he is nevertheless thought to be at the forefront of a revival of alliterative verse. Further examples demonstrate that alliteration was never entirely replaced by end-rhyme and remains a feature of presentday vernacular English and poetry, even though the rhyme scheme is obsolete. It is deeply embedded in the structure and psyche of the English language.