1 option
Reconstructing alliterative verse : the pursuit of a medieval meter / Ian Cornelius.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Cornelius, Ian, 1980- author.
- Series:
- Cambridge studies in medieval literature ; 99.
- Cambridge studies in medieval literature ; 99
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Alliteration--Poetry.
- Alliteration.
- English poetry--Middle English, 1100-1500.
- English poetry.
- Middle Ages--Poetry.
- Middle Ages.
- Poetics--History--To 1500.
- Poetics.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (x, 219 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2017.
- Summary:
- The poetry we call 'alliterative' is recorded in English from the seventh century until the sixteenth, and includes Caedmon's 'Hymn', Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Piers Plowman. These are some of the most admired works of medieval English literature, and also among the most enigmatic. The formal practice of alliterative poets exceeded the conceptual grasp of medieval literary theory; theorists are still playing catch-up today. This book explains the distinctive nature of alliterative meter, explores its differences from subsequent accentual-syllabic forms, and advances a reformed understanding of medieval English literary history. The startling formal variety of Piers Plowman and other Middle English alliterative poems comes into sharper focus when viewed in diachronic perspective: the meter was in transition; to understand it, we need to know where it came from and where it was headed at the moment it died out.
- Contents:
- Machine generated contents note: Introduction: what was alliterative poetry?; 1. An unwritten medieval treatise; 2. The accentual paradigm in early English metrics; 3. The origins of the alliterative revival; 4. The fourteenth-century meter; 5. The end of alliterative verse; Epilogue: Edmund Spenser's poetry lesson.
- Notes:
- Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 11 Aug 2017).
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN:
- 1-108-21648-X
- 1-108-20703-0
- 1-108-21513-0
- 1-108-21783-4
- 1-108-22458-X
- 1-316-65051-0
- 1-108-21918-7
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.