Concatenation is the technical term for any verbal form of stanza or verse linking. The simplest form of concatenation is the repetition of rhyme sounds or alliteration. In more interesting forms a word or a phrase from the last line of a stanza is repeated in the first line of the next.

The most elaborate scheme of concatenation in Middle English literature is to be found in The Pearl whose 20 groups of five stanzas are linked by varying concatenation words, the stanzas within one group, however, are linked by the same word, e.g.: