Talk:Accentual verse

Decline vs. Dominance of Accentual Verse

The claim that "accentual verse lost its dominant position in English poetry following the Norman conquest of England" directly contradicts a claim that appears in the page for Accentual-syllabic verse: "Accentual-syllabic verse dominated literary poetry in English from Chaucer's day until the 19th century." It seems to me that while alliterative verse indeed faded from English poetry (one kind of accentual verse), other kinds of accentual (but no longer alliterative) verse remained dominant. Fyedernoggersnodden (talk) 17:50, 2 February 2019 (UTC)

I think the current phrasing gets across the idea, that 1) originally accentual verse was dominant, 2) after 1066 it competed with syllabic and especially accentual-syllabic forms, and finally 3) from Elizabethan times accentual-syllabic alone dominated:

"Accentual verse lost its dominant position in English poetry following the Norman conquest of England when French forms, with their syllabic emphasis, gained prominence. Accentual verse continued in common use in all forms of Middle English poetry until the codification of accentual-syllabic verse in Elizabethan poetry; thereafter it largely vanished from literary poetry […]"

But perhaps this could be rephrased in a way less likely to be misunderstood? — ˈzɪzɨvə (talk) 21:14, 21 February 2020 (UTC)