Creative writing in intentionally archaic language: parallelism in abnormal contractions

Question

I hope this is on topic here.
I am revising an original poem. No, I am not posting it or asking for a critique. I am intentionally using old-fashioned language. I would like to know if the concept of parallelism applies to 'abnormal' contractions (i.e. words contracted for rhythmic purposes).
A certain line could be written:
Ne'er woven before
or: Ne'er wov'n here before
Do guidelines exist for such situations? Must I contract woven because I contracted a similar word never?

Will Crawford · Answer

The only guidelines I know of for such things are the collected works of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and Clive Staples Lewis (both were professors in English, one specialising in Anglo-Saxon and the other in Mediæval & Renaissance ~).
I'm half joking, but those are fairly well known and much of their work is available online or to be found in charity / second-hand bookshops here.
Otherwise, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and reading a lot of examples from the period you have in mind is probably the best you can do.

Creative writing in intentionally archaic language: parallelism in abnormal contractions

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