Eric Weiskott examines the uses and misuses of three metrical forms as markers of literary periodization: alliterative meter, tetrameter, and pentameter. Rejecting the traditional division between medieval and modern, Weiskott's analysis of metrical history renegotiates the trajectories of English literary history between 1350 and 1650.

List of AbbreviationsNote on Quotations and ScansionPrefaceIntroduction. Modernity: The Problem of a HistoryPart I. Alliterative Meter, Tetrameter, Political ProphecyChapter 1. English Political Prophecy: Coordinates of Form and HistoryChapter 2. The Age of ProphecyChapter 3. The Ireland Prophecy and the Future of Alliterative VerseChapter 4. Tetrameter: The Future of Alliterative VerseChapter 5. Where Have All the Pentameter Prophecies Gone?Part II. Alliterative Meter, Pentameter, LanglandChapter 6. Alliterative Meter and Blank Verse, 1540-1667Chapter 7. The Rhymelessness of Piers PlowmanChapter 8. Langland's Meter and Blank Verse, 1700-2000Part III. Tetrameter, Pentameter, ChaucerChapter 9. Chaucer and the Problem of ModernityChapter 10. Chaucer's English Metrical Phonology: Tetrameter to PentameterChapter 11. The Age of PentameterConclusion. From Archive to CanonAppendix A. English Prophecy BooksAppendix B. Some Texts of English Verse Prophecies Not Noted in NIMEVAppendix C. Compilers, Scribes, and Owners of Manuscripts Containing Political ProphecyAppendix D. The Ireland ProphecyNotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments