Bob and Wheel

Metrical device found in alliterative verse. The first short line of a group of rhyming lines is known as the 'bob', and the following four as the 'wheel'. The "bob" is a one foot line and the "wheel" is a quatrain of trimeter lines. The "bob and wheel" rhyme ababa. 

Example: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

The boar makes for the man with a mighty bound

So that he and his hunter came headlong together

Where the water ran wildest - the worse for the beast,

For the man, when they first met, marked him with care,

Sights well the slot, slips in the blade,

Shove it home to the hilt, and the heart shattered,

And he falls in his fury and floats down the water,

                                         ill-sped.

          Hounds hasten by the score

          To maul him, hide and head;

          Men drag him in to shore

          And dogs pronounce him dead.