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This is a lens about essential poets and poetry - a companion to my Writing Poetry lens.
I'll try to keep the modules in chronological order, so that more recent poets appear at the top of the lens, and you travel back in time as you scroll down the page.
I'll keep adding modules as and when I get the time to do it, so there could be something new here next time you visit.
My poetry blog
Mark McGuinness | poetry
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a tale of Arthurian adventure, featuring the weird and terrifying Green Knight. The Knight appears at King Arthur's court on Christmas morning, riding a green horse and carrying a green axe - and issues a challenge to the assembled knights. Sir Gawain steps forward to accept the, and finds himself entangled in a bewitching adventure. There is something deeply strange and fascinating about this poem, in which the bold Christian knight ventures out into a wilderness full of pagan mystery and enchantment. And like all the best mysteries, you are left with the nagging feeling that not everything has been neatly resolved at the end.
The poet had a superb ear for language and a keen eye for startling images, making this poem well worth the effort it takes to get used to the archaic language. The poem is part of the 'alliterative revival' of the 14th century in England - meaning that it is written in an alliterative style reminiscent of earlier Anglo-Saxon verse (see the Anglo-Saxon poetry module below). He describes his own style in the following lines, which mix alliterative meter with the more 'modern' (in the 14th Century) convention of rhyming:
"As hit is stad and stoken
In stori stif and stronge,
With lel letteres loken,
In londe so hatz ben longe."
(As it is told and stands / in story stiff and strong / with fair letters linked / as has been done in this land a long time.)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was found in the same manuscript as the poems Pearl, Patience and Cleanness. Opinion is divided as to whether they were all written by the same author - in one sense it doesn't matter, as they are all superb poems. They are different in tone however - Sir Gawain is a chivalric romance, whereas the others are more meditative and mystical.
The Luminarium website has the original text and a prose translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
I'm normally pretty severe about the idea of 'translations' of medieval English poetry into modern English - but I'll relent in this case, for three reasons: 1. Gawain and the Green Knight is written in a West Midlands dialect that is a lot more difficult to understand than Chaucer; 2. This edition includes the original text on the facing pages, and it's a lot easier to get the gist of it once you've read the translation; 3. W.S. Merwin has made a superb job of this translation, and it's much better to read his version than it would be to miss out altogether on one of the best poems in English. Do have a look at the left-hand pages though - once you've got the meaning from the modern English, you can dip into the original and savour the richness of the poet's language.
Amazon Price: $11.20 (as of 10/16/2008)
Sir Gawain & Green Knight (Everyman's Library)
The original text of all the poems found in the Gawain manuscript, with glosses and footnotes to help you follow the Medieval dialect. For those who want more than a passing acquaintance with the original.
Amazon Price: $8.95 (as of 10/16/2008)
Manuscript of Beowulf
This image shows part of the first page of the only surviving manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. This manuscript was probably written around the year 1000 AD, an estimated 200 years or so after the poem was composed.You can see a larger image of the manuscript on this page of Wikipedia.
Anglo-Saxon (Old English) Poetry
In the beginning...
Because the language is so different from modern and even medieval English, some people argue that Anglo-Saxon poetry isn't really English poetry, and we should start the history of English poetry in the middle ages. Utter tosh. For one thing, it's not that difficult to recognise many English words and phrases in Anglo-Saxon poems. For another, Anglo-Saxon verse is written in a distinctive alliterative meter - unlike rhyming poetry, which relies on matching similar sounds at the end of words, alliterative verse uses the sounds at the beginning of words. For example, here's a line from the famous poem Beowulf:
Sorh is me to secgan on sefan minum
This roughly translates as 'it grieves my heart to say'. I've highlighted the repeated 's' sounds, which would have been stressed (as well as minum) to produce a distinctive four-beat line, very different in sound to the iambic pentameter that later become the most common meter in English poetry. A translation of the line closer to the sound than the literal sense might go something like this:
Sore is it to say in this soul of mine
Try saying that aloud, emphasising the stresses, and you'll start to get a feel for the sound of Anglo-Saxon poetry.
Why does all this matter? Well, apart from helping you to appreciate some marvellous Anglo-Saxon poetry, it's important to listen out for this alliterative meter as you read some later poets - in medieval and modern English - as this kind of verse did not die out with the Anglo-Saxons, but survived as an alternative to the 'mainstream' iambic meter. Gerard Manley Hopkins and Ted Hughes are two obvious examples - I'll highlight these and other poets in later modules for this lens.
This mixture of vocabulary and verse forms from several different languages and literatures is one reason for the extraordinary variety and richness of poetry written in English. If you haven't looked at any Anglo-Saxon poems, you'll be missing out on an important ingredient that can be tasted in many later English poems. But more than that - you'll be missing out on some terrific poems that are worth reading and enjoying in their own right.
Beowulf: Revised Edition (Manchester Medieval Classics)
In his introduction to this edition, Michael Swanton says 'Beowulf is to English what the Iliad and Odyssey are to Greek language and literature. An epic story of heroic battles with monsters and dragons, you can see where J.R.R. Tolkien (a distinguished Beowulf scholar) drew much of his inspiration for Lord of the Rings. As well as an excellent introduction to the poem, its language and Anglo-Saxon culture, this edition provides a good prose translation of the poem with the original Anglo-Saxon on the facing page. Even though I can't read much of the original text, there's something exciting about seeing the Anglo-Saxon words on the opposite page, like the massed ranks of a Dark Ages army on the opposite bank of a river, with the unfamiliar characters ð and þ sticking out like spears or axes. Don't be content with translations or retellings - this version brings you face-to-face with the original.
Amazon Price: $21.95 (as of 10/16/2008)
A Choice of Anglo Saxon Verse
A good selection of Anglo-Saxon poems, including my favourites, The Seafarer and The Wanderer, with a verse translation and the original text on facing pages. For some reason it's been allowed to go out of print in the US, but (as I type) there are some secondhand editions available via Amazon.com - if you're in the UK there's a new edition available on Amazon.co.uk
Amazon Price: (as of 10/16/2008)
A Guide to Old English, Sixth Edition
One for the hardcore enthusiasts (and undergraduate students). If you really want to read and understand the original poems, this book offers a good self-study course in Anglo-Saxon. Part One is a detailed introduction to the Anglo-Saxon language; Part Two is a selection of poems and other works in the original Anglo-Saxon, with footnotes and a glossary to help you find your way through the texts. An excellent selection of texts and scholarly apparatus make it invaluable for getting to know the original language - but only buy this if you want to do some serious studying!
Amazon Price: $41.11 (as of 10/16/2008)
Online poetry magazines
- Jacket
- Jacket is only published online, one effect of which is that every 'issue' is ENORMOUS, and new issues are assembled piece-by-piece. Editor John Tranter somehow manages to balance quality with the huge quantity in his Herculean task. You could wander for weeks in the archives...
- nthposition
- Edited by Todd Swift
- Contemporary Poetry Review
- "Resuscitating poetry criticism"
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Let me know what you think...
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WakeShine
Thanks for the lens! Posted October 03, 2006 |
