According to history, when King Harald copped an arrow in the eye at the Battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror lived up to his name, the tiny island of England - then called "Engelond" - came under the rule of the French. The Angles and Saxons, who had themselves invaded some 600 years before, were now under French rule. French became the ruling language; Anglo-Saxon became the language of the underlings.
The French brought their French ways, and their poets brought with them their own meters and styles of poetry. Rhyming and measured feet became the thing, and the traditional poetic forms of the Angles and Saxons were superseded. Three hundred years later Chaucer wrote mostly in the styles and cadences and meters of French poetry.
I need to say from the start that I'm no expert in Old English. What follows is what I've picked up from a quick skim of some books about Anglo Saxon poetry. But it was interesting enough to prompt me to share it. Here's a small portion of an Old English poem - The Dream of the Rood. It demonstrates some of the key features of Anglo Saxon verse.
Lo! I will tell the dearest of dreams
That I dreamed in the midnight when mortal men
Were sunk in slumber. Me-seemed I saw
A wondrous Tree towering in air
Most shining of crosses compassed with light
Brightly that beacon was gilded in gold
These are the key features of Anglo Saxon verse:
- The verse is made up of a series of lines.
- Each line has a pause - or caesura - in the middle.
- Generally, each half line contains two stresses.
For example:
Most SHINing of CROSSes COMpassed with LIGHT
- A line can have several unstressed syllables.
- A key feature of this poetry is alliteration:
For example,
Were Sunk in Slumber. Me-SeeMed I Saw
The poetry also uses assonance and consonant rhymes.
For example:
Me-seemed was gilded in gold
- The poetry was not read, but sung or chanted to the accompaniment of a lute.
- There were no end-rhymes. These came with the French.
An examination of a few of the lines will serve to demonstrate the complexity of this poetry.
Take the line: Most shining of crosses compassed with light
Notice that the long i vowel in shining is echoed in light. There is the alliterative pairing of crosses and compassed, but also, note the consonant repetition of ss in both words.
Then there is the line: A wondrous Tree towering in air.
In both Tree and towering, we have the T and R sounds echoing.
And in the first line: Lo! I will tell the dearest of dreams
notice the alliteration of the L sound, in Lo, clearest, will and tell, and both D and R in dearest and dreams.
One critic observed:
"The metrical effect of Old English poetry is of a disciplined series of dignified utterances in a regular and very marked rhythm, taut and carefully timed."
If they're not already part of our repertoire, perhaps it's time to revive the Anglo Saxon forms with their distinctive limitations and possibilities.
Poetry is, to quote the Anglo Saxons,
A song I sing of sorrow unceasing
