Bob and Wheel

 Different languages have developed different poetic traditions because of the sound structures of those languages. For example, the Germanic languages had, early on, before the influence of Latin poetry and those of the Latinate languages (especially Italian and French), been dominated by alliterative forms. 

Alliteration is, of course, the repetition of initial sounds. The Old English poem, Beowulf, and those Norse Sagas written in verse are all alliterative. There are fewer words with end rhymes in the Germanic languages than in the Latinate languages, so as a consequence, other sound patterns emerged. Further, the languages are dominated by hard consonants, so it would be natural for hard consonants in particular to emerge as a rhythmic structuring device. 

In the Latinate languages, we find a lot of end rhymes. Thus, we should not be surprised to find that there is a lot of use of end rhymes in their poetry. Latin poetry was heavily influenced by Greek poetry, which emphasized rhythms such as iambic (which the Greeks considered to be a comic rhythm). As French and Latin entered into the English language, their styles of poetry did as well. Regular rhythms emerged, as did end rhyme. But of course, these things did not just happen overnight.

Thus, after the Norman conquest of England in the 11th Century, it's not surprising that we would find transitional poetry such as that of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the 14th century. While the main part of each stanza of The Green Knight is alliterative, each also ends with what is known as a "bob and wheel," in which regular rhythms and end rhyme come into play. 

All three translations I have of The Green Knight include the bob-and-wheel, but only two--Marie Borroff's and Brian Stone's translations--attempt to alliterate throughout the work, while W.S. Merwin's does not (nor do his bob-and-wheels rhyme correctly). The latter does, however, have the original on the facing page. We'll discuss issues of translation at a later date, so I will only note that in the tension between meaning and music, some translators tend toward one over the other. 

The stanza structure in The Green Knight is approximately 15-25 alliterative lines followed by a bob-and-wheel, which has the following structure:

rhythm    rhyme     structure

u/u/           a            bob
u/u/u/        b            wheel
u/u/u/        a            wheel
u/u/u/        b            wheel
u/u/u/        a            wheel

Here is an example of Stone's translation of stanza 30, the last two alliterative lines leading into the bob-and-wheel:

And there was none but said his nay, for never in their lives

Had they set eyes on someone of such hue

        As green.

    His way was wild and strange

    By dreary hill and dean.

    His mood would many times change

    Before that fane was seen. 

I would perhaps have made "many times" "often" in order to perfect the rhythm, but you get the idea of what this structure looks like. In any case, you will note that the bob is enjambed with the last line of the alliterative portion of the stanza. This ensures the continuity of the alliterative portion with the bob-and-wheel.

I've played with this structure myself, though I created a longer bob and a shorter wheel:

        Guide Light

        In the blue is the moon, a milk mass
        Whose place is purple dawn, a pregnant
        Betrayal of time and expectation
        When the sun is supposed to be set in the sapphire
        Alone to light our lives. Who's she
                Who'll be
                So free
            Beside the sun --
            Why won't she run?

        I thought the dark was destined to draw
        Me through my life, to thread and to threaten
        In ceaseless new moon nights that would nudge
        Me graveward and grant me a gravity that death
        Couldn't strangle out of me. Still the steel,
                Reveal
                The wheel
            That turned my life
            From death's blue knife.

        But the moon that is doubling the day will dip
        Into the night enough so that nothing
        Is encompassed by the dark that has come to claim
        My mind -- she will mend my heart and move
        Me to the dawn so the devils will dance
                The lance.
                Entrance
            Me to the day
            Where I can stay.

Certainly, there are other ways you can play with the bob-and-wheel structure, or you can simply use it as originally conceived. While alliteration has gotten a bad name in English poetry for a long time, I suspect that bad name has come about from a degree of Latin-based snobbery. I think there's probably a lot of potential still in alliterative verse, especially to the degree that it draws us into the Germanic origins of English through sound. More, I think there's something charming about the bob-and-wheel structure. It's something worth playing with. What can you create using this transitional structure? How might it become a transitional structure for you?