Medieval poetry
Medieval poetry was often preserved by mere happenstance. Because most of what we have was written down by clerics, much of extant medieval poetry is religious. Old English religious poetry includes the poem Christ by Cynewulf, and the poem The Dream of the Rood, preserved in both manuscript and on the Ruthwell Cross. We do have some secular poetry, in fact a great deal of medieval literature was written in poetry, 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.
See also: Medieval literature, Medieval art
In mediæval Latin, while verse in the old quantitative meters continued to be written, a new more popular form called the 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 Gambler's Mass (officio lusorum) from the Carmina Burana, were parodies of Christian hymns, while others were student melodies: folksongs, love songs and drinking ballads. The famous 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 the story of a knight's adventures.
Topics
Medieval Latin poets
Authors
Medieval English poetry
Medieval German poetry
Medieval Celtic poetry
