How the sijo is like Anglo-Saxon verse or sprung rhythm
If you take a look at yesterday's post, you can see all the requirements for writing a sijo. If you read Thursday's post, you may have noticed my mention of Anglo-Saxon verse.
I may go further into those items starting tomorrow, but allow me to explain:
Anglo-Saxon verse (sometimes called "Old English metre", per Wikipedia), such as was used to craft Beowulf, was originally sung, just as sijo were. In point of fact, sijo used to be the word for the song/melody, and only later became the word used for the words/poetry. Sprung rhythm (which is based in Anglo-Saxon traditions, and is very lyrical) is also largely song-based.
While sijo does not use the sort of alliteration found in either Anglo-Saxon metre or sprung rhythm, it does have another similarity: "feet" don't have to be regular.
In sijo, the phrases/clauses can vary in length (3-5 syllables), and the seven stressed syllables per line are not placed in any specific manner.
In Anglo-Saxon metre, they can be trochees, iambs, spondees, or more, but there are only four strongly stressed syllables per line. As is the case with the sijo, Anglo-Saxon metre requires a caesura mid-line.
In sprung rhythm, the total number of syllables doesn't really matter; only the stressed syllables count, and there are four stressed syllables per line, each in its own sort of poetic foot (which can be two to four syllables in length), and again there is a caesura in the middle of each line.
Interesting that these systems developed similarly despite distance of space (and time). Tomorrow, I think we'll go Old (English) school. More anon.