Sievers' theory of Anglo-Saxon meter
Eduard Sievers developed a theory of the meter of Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse. This most likely would have been the theory of Anglo-Saxon prosody that Ezra Pound would have been familiar with.
A line of Anglo-Saxon verse is made up of two half-lines. Each of these half-lines contains two main stresses. Sievers categorized three basic types of half-line that were used. Here a stressed syllable is represented by the symbol '/' and an unstressed syllable by the symbol 'x'.
He also noted that three possible types of half-line were not used:
However the first two of these can be used if one of the 'dips' is changed into a half-stress :
