[Grammar] Under the tree he was / was he lying.

[wotcha]

1. Under the tree he was lying.

2. Under the tree was he lying.


I wonder which one is grammatical.

 

[5jj]

Neither is natural. He was lying under the tree is natural.

 

[wotcha]

Neither is natural. He was lying under the tree is natural.

That's true, but I've heard that if an adverbial phrase is placed at the beginning of a sentence

for an emphasis, there occurs an inversion between a subject and a verb.

 

[Rover_KE]

1. Under the tree he was lying.

2. Under the tree was he lying.


I wonder which one is grammatical.

They are both grammatically correct in literary or poetic usage.

Rover