The first thing that I began notice as I progressed in my readings was the obvious change in structure from the Old English time period to the 16th century. Although they are poems, the literary works we read from Old English are not what one thinks of when one hears the word poem. Poems are usually thought of as rhyming lines with a regular meter or rhythm. Both “The Wanderer” and “The Wife’s Lament” following more of an essay or journal style writing in which the speaker tells of their hardships and sorrows being away from their loved one(s). In the Middle English works, the structure becomes much more apparent. The works of this time period are ballads in which Chaucer includes three or more stanzas written with the same rhyme scheme. Middle English is where we begin to found more structure in the ballads and lyrics, which often help the reader to remember the poem better. As we move to the 16th century, we see Wyatt continue the use of structure. The structures of his poems are Petrarch sonnets but they steam away from the usual rhyme scheme. Also in the 16th century, Howard uses the English sonnet structure in his works. Usually ballads and sonnets are truly representative of love, however, this may not be the case, as I will investigate in the next part of my blog entry.
Not only did I notice the change in structure of the works we read this week, I also noticed a shift in the style and meaning behind the works. Although all the works focused on love as a central focal point, they all have varying views of love. In the beginning of our literary journey, “The Wanderer” shows the devastation of losing a loved one and the need to replace them or move on to a different place in order to heal. Love is portrayed as something that is great when it is there but as the speaker in “The Wanderer” learned the hard way, lost love is the worst thing to have to deal. The speaker’s life seems as though it is a miserable burden day in and day out. The speaker in “The Wife’s Lament” also feels as though lost love is unbearable. The speaker points out that this the only she can think of and has faith that her loved is going through the same despair.
In the Middle English time period Chaucer writes about the frustration one can feel while in the state of being in love. In Chaucer’s “Troilus’s Song”, the speaker makes comments that allude to love as something that you can never get enough of, “For always thurste I, the more that I drinke” (Chaucer 316). In “Alison”, also written during the Middle English time period, the speaker claims, “I am for wooing worn out from waking” (437). Both these lines imply that love is some exhausting and frustrating on top of being great.
In the 16th century, we come to read sonnets by Wyatt. Sonnets are normally thought of a love poem, something written about love and how great it is. However, Wyatt did not necessarily stick with this rule of thumb. Wyatt seems to have this negative view towards women, which shows up in sonnets. In the modern prose translation of “I Find No Peace”, the sonnet ends with “Equally displeasing to me are death and life. In this state am I, Lady, on account of you” (Wyatt 597). Here Wyatt is basically blaming his misery on the woman who he used to be in love with. Wyatt does not make love out to seem so great in this sonnet. Also during this time period, Howard wrote sonnets, which were said to be concerned with the structure than the actual inspiration of the poem. It seems, as though both writers of this time were writing sonnets, which typically are very lovey-dovey, that were not focused on the benefits of love.
All this being said, these "love" poems left me thinking, is love that great? (especially when it ends)
6 comments:
Interesting post! The part I found particularly interesting was the first paragraph though. We definitely did see a shift this week to more "poemy" poems. The Old English poems don't seem to have meter, rhyme, or traditional poetic structure. But I wonder how much that is because we're reading them in translation. I assume that it wouldn't make any difference, but maybe it would. Maybe if we could read the Old English version of "The Wanderer" we could discover rhyme or some sort of old-school meter.
Kate, what a great point you have made! When I think of poetry, I immediately think of love, bliss, and beauty,but as we have seen such as in Wyatt's poems is the heartbreak and depressing part of love. Actually, most of the poets we read, wrote about the heartbreak and not the butterflies and head over heels feelings. Then, as I look back at the authors, most if not all were men. I feel that woman most of the time are more reluctant to express their feelings, and when they write about love, they usually think of the good things and are more easily able to fall in love. I am really not sure, if love is different between woman and men, but I think that it depends on the situations that they go through.
I also, found it interesting that "The Wander" and "The Wife's Lament" were both not written in verse, but more of an essay format. When I think of poetry, like you mentioned, I think of verses and rhyming lines. The style and structure of the poem certainly show how expression has changed over centuries. Who knows, maybe one day the style will change again and we will have a whole other perspective about love.
I kind of disagree with the above point re: women being less reluctant to express their feelings than men. Kind of an offensive generalization, I think, but that's neither here nor there and I agree with the other stuff you said. Kate: I noticed what you're talking about, here. I felt like the writers' attitudes towards love slowly grew more complex throughout the centuries. By the time we got to Chaucer, things were less black and white. There was one poem, the name of which escapes me at this moment (sorry!), where the author wearily discussed giving up on the whole enterprise. It was hard to tell how serious he was, but a) the attitude linked him, in my mind, with the uber-modern love song tradition (more specifically, Los Campesinos' "Romance is Boring") and b) was actually RELATABLE. Whereas the all-consuming, you're-gone-now-and-I-can't-go-on thing of the first two poems was waaaaay outside the range of my experience. Which is not to say that should be a criteria when it comes to evaluating a work of art, but I feel like NOBODY'S experience with love is that simple, you know what I mean?
The historical context is definitely accountable for this change in literary trends. I think an important thing to remember is that these formal poetic structures were widely used for centuries in other parts of Europe and even in England briefly before it was used by Chaucer and the sixteenth century English poets as the Norton notes in the first paragraph of the introduction to Middle English Lyrics on page 435. Because the Crusades were drawing to a close and the printing press was invented in the mid-fifteenth century(Wikipedia), education was becoming much more common than in previous times. Also this was a time of great exploration and increased foreign trade, and coming into contact with new foreign civilizations tends to incite innovations in creativity. I really think that all of these new opportunities to live, love and daydream increasingly more often gave these poets the necessary means to learn and practice formal poetry and better express their thoughts and emotions, laying the foundations for the much more popular English poetry in later centuries.
Wow! I'm so happy I got so many comments :) Thanks everyone!
Steve, I think you bring a good point. That same thought definitely crossed my mind as well. I was thinking the same thing that it shouldn't make a difference. But who knows? Maybe the translation was done differently than the original text. I might try and look something on that to see what the original was like.
Jaclyn, I like your thinking about the future. As we saw this week, the feelings about love in the literary world have definitely changed. I am really curious to see what perspectives will be like the future.
Bearsjnine, I totally agree that the later perspectives on love are much more relatable and give a less "fluffy" side of love. I think a lot of people could relate this negative view of love because unfortunately, some people do not have the best experiences with love. I also feel like this perspectives appeals to college students because this a hard time in our loves for love because we are still trying to discover who we are.
When reading through the post and then looking at the comments, I definitely had the same reason most of you did. Reading the Old English "poem" in essay form was hard for me. Typically, I think of a poem's structure and style to be the way Wyatt's was in the 16th century. Reading the poems from the 16th century were much easier for me to understand, get through, and relate to. I'm not sure if this was solely because of the structure or because of the content.
Like most of you said, the idea of love evolves through the various time periods the same way that the structure and style does. Talking about love in a black or white situation is extremely unrealistic. Wyatt's views on love - complicated and not always grand - is more of a realistic approach and much more relateable to us in this time period and at our age. I took much more away from the 16th century readings than the Old English or Middle English selections.
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