Note 204 — Chapter II · RHYTHM AS THE ESSENTIAL FACT OF POETRY

That strophic hymns were known in earliest Germanic poetry is shown, Sievers points out, by the fact that Middle High German liet is the same as Old Norse ljóð, “strophe.” For the old choral poetry, he says, “wird ein im gleichen Takte fortschreitender Sangesvortrag ohne weiteres zuzugeben sein,” Ibid., p. 20.