In poetry, accentual verse uses a set number of stresses in each line. This happens even if the number of syllables changes. It is often found in stress-timed languages, like English. Syllabic verse, which relies on a fixed number of syllables per line, is more common in syllable-timed languages, such as French.
Children's poetry
Accentual verse is often found in children's poetry, such as nursery rhymes and skipping-rope rhymes. These are the most common types of accentual verse in English. The poem "Baa Baa Black Sheep" is an example of this type of verse. Each line has two stressed syllables, but the number of unstressed syllables changes. Stressed syllables are shown in bold letters, and the total number of syllables in each line is listed.
Baa , baa, black sheep, (4) Have you any wool ? (5) Yes sir, yes sir, (4) Three bags full ; (3) One for the mas -ter, (5) And one for the dame , (5) And one for the lit -tle boy (7) Who lives down the lane . (5)
In this example, the word "boy" is part of the metrical foot where "lives" is stressed, due to elision.
Accentual verse has a musical quality because it uses unstressed syllables in a flexible way. It often follows the natural rhythm of spoken English.
History
Accentual verse was a common type of poetry rhythm in Germany, Scandinavia, Iceland, and Britain. This form of verse was widely used in early English poetry, especially in Old English poetry, which often used a special type called alliterative verse. A famous example of this is the poem Beowulf. Anglo-Saxon poetry usually added two more elements to the basic four-beat rhythm: alliteration (repeating sounds) on three of the four beats and a pause in the middle of the line (called a caesura). Anglo-Saxon poets often used special words called epithets to help create alliteration. They also followed more complex rules, though these were not as common in later poetry.
Accentual verse became less popular in English poetry after the Norman conquest of England, when French poetry styles, which focused more on syllables, became more common. However, this type of verse remained widely used in Middle English poetry until the Elizabethan period, when a new form called accentual-syllabic verse was developed. After this, accentual verse was rarely used in literary poetry for about 300 years, though it stayed popular in folk poetry. An example from this time is Piers Ploughman by William Langland, which still used alliteration:
"I looked on my left side | | as the lady me taught and was aware of a woman | | worthily clothed."
A well-known source of accentual verse from the post-Elizabethan period is Mother Goose's Melody (1765). In the 19th century, accentual verse was revived when poet Gerard Manley Hopkins developed a rhythm called sprung rhythm. Though not widely used, some poets experimented with this form. In 1921, Robert Bridges created a detailed system for writing accentual verse in his work Milton's Prosody. Modern poets like W. H. Auden and Dana Gioia have also used this form.
Outside of children's and literary poetry, accentual verse is still popular in poetry meant for oral performance, such as cowboy poetry and rap.
In modern literary use, three basic rules for accentual verse are followed, along with some variations.
There are also stricter forms of accentual verse, such as those with specific numbers of stresses.
In Polish literature, like in French, syllabic verse is more common. Accentual verse was introduced to Polish poetry in the 20th century. The first poet to use it was Jan Kasprowicz, who included it in his book The Book of the Poor (1916). His lines had three stresses. An example is:
"Rarely on my lips — Let this lip now confess — Blood-soaked, the dearest word: Homeland."
Kasprowicz wrote that the word "homeland" is rarely spoken on his lips. The rhythm of this line follows a pattern with three stresses. This became a popular style. Another pattern with six stresses was used by poet Julian Tuwim.