Metrics always has been a neglected area of literary studies (Fowler 1971:231). When linguists studied the aspects of metre of (ancient) Indo-European versification, they each had their own ideas and interpretations (see e.g. Brücke (1871:iii), Heusler (1968:7) and others). Furthermore, it has been for the greatest part the outward metrical form of the early remainders of Indian, Greek, Latin, or Iranian poetry by which many scholars were attracted. Their main goal was to determine to what extent the Greek and the Indian metres, different as they are, were related in Indo-European antiquity. Very often they attempted to derive a common Indo-European form of versification. It was mainly the metrical aspect of Vedic, Homeric, or ancient Latin poetry which interested the comparatists (Gonda 1975d:259).
Other scholars focused their attention on other, non-metrical aspects of poetry. They characterised versification styles and their developments by enumerating several characteristics and showing changes thereby. De Graaf (1980:131-135) for example gives a list of characteristics of the older Middle-Dutch narrative poems. However, he maintains that the dating of a poem on the basis of prosodic aspects is not yet possible, because any data that can be statistically used are lacking (De Graaf 1980:134). Nevertheless, he is aware of the fact that there is a change of style during the 13th and 14th century.
However, neither the metrics, nor the other poetic devices are independent entities. A text of a certain length is to be considered a texture of phonetic, grammatical and semantic structures. All three should be studied separately and together, in order to analyse a text thoroughly, as the units depend on each other. In other words, the three linguistic layers, namely the phonetic (rhythm and sound), the grammatical (morphology and syntaxis) and the semantic, together determine the text as it is. None of these three can be set aside without damaging the text (Grol 1986:3).
Earlier scholars have already observed that the compatibility of words and metre is founded on abstract patterns, e.g., Halle and Keyser,
"In our view all metres are rudimentary linear arrangements of abstract entities which are embodied in linguistic material by virtue of specific conventions (correspondence rules) that establish correspondences between the abstract entities of the metre and particular (phonetic) properties of words'' (Morris Halle and Samuel J. Keyser 1971:155).
Clearly, there must be a certain relationship between syntactical and metrical boundaries regarding verse-making. In Buginese for example, a language of the Austronesian group, spoken on Sulawesi, the pallawa, a sequence of three dots, placed under each other diagonally, (or a diagonally stroke), indicates syntactic borders as well as end of foot in metrical texts (as could be expected, often coinciding with a syntactic dissection) (see Tol 1990:128). In Old Javanese, the pada lingsa is a punctuation mark which occurs at the end of complete sentences as well as clauses (Roorda 1906:section 72). The pada lingsa may further be used to indicate the end of lines in poems or songs (Gonda 1975h:492). Obviously, here the end of the (metrical) line concurs with the end of the clause or sentence.
In recent times, linguists have started to investigate the relationship between the metre and the syntax of the versified sentence. The starting point for this new direction lies in the development of Universal Grammars and modern Phonology. This development has stimulated the classifying and explaining of poetic productions, not only classical or mediaeval poems, but modern poems as well. The different features of poems, that is, metrics, syntactic and other stylistic devices - like rhyme, alliteration, similes, figurative language -, appear to be closely and inseparably bound together, and are more and more studied as a unit. Such studies, e.g. Kiparsky (1975:576-616), Van den Berg (1983) and Helsloot (1993-95), often focus on the interaction between metre and words or phrases.