Medieval poetry

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Poetry took numerous forms in medieval Europe, for example, lyric and epic poetry. The

minnesänger are known for composing their lyric poetry about courtly love usually accompanied by an instrument.[1]

Among the most famous of secular poetry is Carmina Burana, a manuscript collection of 254 poems. Twenty-four poems of Carmina Burana were later set to music by German composer Carl Orff in 1936.

Examples of medieval poetry

secular poetry; in fact a great deal of medieval literature was written in verse, including the Old English epic Beowulf. Scholars are fairly sure, based on a few fragments and on references in historic texts, that much lost secular poetry was set to music, and was spread by traveling minstrels, or bards, across Europe. Thus, the few poems written eventually became ballads
or lays, and never made it to being recited without song or other music.

Medieval Latin literature

In medieval

sequence arose, which was based on accentual metres in which metrical feet were based on stressed syllables rather than vowel length. These metres were associated with Christian hymnody
.

However, much secular poetry was also written in Latin. Some poems and songs, like the

commercium song Gaudeamus igitur is one example. There are also a few narrative poems of the period, such as the unfinished epic Ruodlieb, which tells us the story of a knight
's adventures.

Topics

Medieval Latin poets

Medieval vernacular literature

One of the features of the

chansons de geste and acritic songs (songs of heroic deeds) were often about the great men, real or imagined, and their achievements like Arthur, Charlemagne and El Cid
.

The earliest recorded European

Roman empire, this had time to develop into a highly sophisticated literature with well-documented formal rules and highly organised bardic schools. The result was a large body of prose and verse recording the ancient myths
and sagas of the Gaelic-speaking people of the island, as well as poems on religious, political and geographical themes and a body of nature poetry.

The formality which Latin had gained through its long

meter rather than rhyme
and only began to adopt rhyme after being influenced by these new poems.

Romance languages

Old French

The Matter of France

The Matter of Britain

The Matter of Rome

Occitan

Catalan

Italian

Spanish

Galician-Portuguese

French

Medieval Georgian Poetry

The Knight in the Panther's Skin

Shen Khar Venakhi (tr: "You are vineyard")

Abdulmesiani (tr: "Slave of the Messiah")

Germanic languages

Alliterative verse

Medieval English poetry

Medieval German poetry

Medieval Greek poetry

Medieval Celtic poetry

Welsh

Irish

Further reading

  • Wilhelm, James J., (editor), Lyrics of the Middle Ages : an anthology, New York : Garland Pub., 1990.
    ISBN 0-8240-7049-6

References

  1. ^ Goodrum, R. Gordon (September 1995). "The Poetry of Wandering Scholars and Wayward Clerics". The Choral Journal. 36: 9. Retrieved 26 April 2023.

External links

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