The Middle Ages + Poetry

the middle ages

fall of the Roman Empire (c.500) to the beginning of the renaissance (14th/15th c)

Early Middle Ages

500 - 10th century

• spread of early christianity

high middle ages

10th - 13th century

• castles, churches, universities

late middle ages

14th + 15th century

• English becomes the predominant language

• always in motion

• no mass production of texts

latin

• prestigious

• clergies and universities

• language of scholarship, the complex, and power

French

• aristocratic culture + sophistication

• high society

• romance

English

• working class, masses

• lacks vocabulary for sophistication

• Chaucer writes in English - significant change

religion in texts

• religious ideas always dominate

• authors had a responsibility to contribute to the religious

• tongue in cheek preface’s to make room for creativity

the church

• not a well organised monolithic body

• constant reform + reinforcement of religion

Authors

• poems often anonymously written

• focus on context instead of author

Foweles in The Frith

• speaker on a physical and emotional journey

• begins with a tone of child like wonder and shifts to an intense lament

• the perfect, god made natural world soiled by sin

• Adam and Eve in the Garden

• paradox: wonder and horror of the world

• perhaps the loss of a loved one

• loss of jesus - dying on the cross

I Syng Of A Mayden

• devoted, pious voice, sacred event treated with care

• hushed, wondrous voice

• commenting on religion in Middle English not Latin: acccesible

• presenting ballad to audience, spreading the word

• natural world as a way of being closer to God

• nature represents the miracle of Mary

• cycle of natural things: inevitability of the birth of christ

• pure maiden, she chose Jesus to be her son, active figure

Summer is I-cumin in

• positive, pushing for summer joy to be recognised

• attitudes towards natural world

• detachment from human world (addressing a bird)

• religious connotations in the idea of rebirth

• focus on god’s beauty

• feminine connotations of a new life

the lyric

short poem, typically written in verse, between the 4th and 15th century

• sometimes set to music

• English verses often include French and latin

• way of forming material to be easily memorised and repeated