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Poetry took numerous forms in medieval Europe, for example, lyric and epic poetry. Thetroubadours,trouvères, and theminnesänger are known for composing their lyric poetry aboutcourtly love usually accompanied by an instrument.[1]
Among the most famous of secular poetry isCarmina Burana, a manuscript collection of 254 poems. Twenty-four poems ofCarmina Burana were later set to music by German composerCarl Orff in 1936.
Old English religious poetry includes thepoemChrist byCynewulf and the poemThe Dream of the Rood, preserved in bothmanuscript form and on theRuthwell Cross. We do have somesecular poetry; in fact a great deal of medieval literature was written in verse, including the Old English epicBeowulf. 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 travelingminstrels, orbards, across Europe. Thus, the few poems written eventually becameballads or lays, and never made it to being recited without song or other music.
In medievalLatin, while verse in the old quantitativemeters continued to be written, a new more popular form called thesequence arose, which was based onaccentual metres in which metrical feet were based onstressedsyllables rather thanvowel length. These metres were associated withChristianhymnody.
However, much secular poetry was also written in Latin. Some poems and songs, like theGambler's Mass (officio lusorum) from theCarmina Burana, wereparodies of Christian hymns, while others were student melodies: folksongs, love songs and drinking ballads. The famouscommercium songGaudeamus igitur is one example. There are also a few narrative poems of the period, such as the unfinishedepicRuodlieb, which tells us the story of aknight's adventures.
One of the features of theRenaissance which marked the end of the medieval period is the rise in the use of thevernacular or the language of the common people for literature. The compositions in these local languages were often about the legends and history of the areas in which they were written which gave the people some form of national identity.Epic poems,sagas,chansons de geste andacritic songs (songs of heroic deeds) were often about the great men, real or imagined, and their achievements likeArthur,Charlemagne andEl Cid.
The earliest recorded Europeanvernacular literature is that written in theIrish language. Given that Ireland had escaped absorption into theRoman Empire, this had time to develop into a highly sophisticated literature with well-documented formal rules and highly organisedbardic schools. The result was a large body of prose and verse recording the ancientmyths and sagas of the Gaelic-speaking people of the island, as well as poems on religious, political and geographical themes and a body of nature poetry.
The formality which Latin had gained through its longwritten history was often not present in the vernaculars which began producing poetry, and so new techniques and structures emerged, often derived from oral literature. This is particularly noticeable in theGermanic languages, which, unlike theRomance languages, are not direct descendants from Latin.Alliterative verse, where many of the stressed words in each line start with the same sound, was often used in the local poetry of that time. Other features of vernacular poetry of this time includekennings,internal rhyme, andslant rhyme. Indeed, Latin poetry traditionally usedmeter rather thanrhyme and only began to adopt rhyme after being influenced by these new poems.
The Knight in the Panther's Skin
Shen Khar Venakhi (tr: "You are vineyard")
Abdulmesiani (tr: "Slave of the Messiah")
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