This dissertation argues that the conventional alliterative and rhythmic typologies used to model the Middle English alliterative line standardize both the tradition and meters of alliterative verse. Drawing on arguments to expand the set of alliterative poems beyond the so-called classical corpus of the Alliterative Revival, I argue that the variable line lengths and mixing of rhyme and alliteration in the Harley and Pearl manuscripts are deliberate innovations and reflect three distinct alliterative meters: the alliterative long-line, the alliterative short-line, and alliterative counterpoint.

In distinguishing these meters, I argue that the Harley and Pearl manuscripts demonstrate that alliterative meters can be defined without the requirement of alliteration or the prohibition of rhyme. I further argue that the rhythmic repetitions that the traditional alliterative and rhythmic typologies seek to describe are better defined by underlying metrical constraints on the relative prominence of the phonological word and phrase within the metrical foot. Drawing on the linguistic theories of the METRICAL and PROSODIC HIERARCHIES, I argue that alliterative meters share a metrical template with the iambic tetrameter, and that they are constructed of the binary grouping of weak and strong metrical positions into metrical feet, metrical feet into metrical cola, and metrical cola into the metrical line. These constituents, I argue, are implied in the lineation of the manuscript and poetic line in the Harley and Pearl manuscripts, and they highlight the importance of metrical and prosodic alignment in alliterative meters.

By placing alliterative meters within the broader Middle English poetic tradition, my argument explains how alliterative and accentual-syllabic meters borrowed from and influenced each other. By separating the poetic features of rhyme and alliteration from the narrower constraints on meter, my theory promotes a more complex analysis of the interaction of rhyme and alliteration with and against rhythmic and metrical expectations. Finally, by drawing the metrical constraints from linguistic constituents, my theory suggests that alliterative poets used meter as a tool for linguistic and poetic reanalysis.