The prosody of the Pearl-Poet: A technical analysis of the poems in MS Cotton Nero A.x.
Von Ende, Frederick Albert Chaffey
Von Ende, Frederick Albert Chaffey
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Date
1972
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Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine collectively the technical aspects of the four poems bound together in the unique manuscript Cotton Nero A.x.--Pearl, Purity (or Cleanness), Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight--to determine, first, what further information such an examination can give us about the authorship and composition of these poems, and, second, what light such an investigation can shed upon the development of English prosody during the Middle English period. Each of the four poems is examined in three chief areas of prosody: the effects of time and stress (rhythm and meter), the function of rhyme (end-rhyme and alliteration), and the structure of the larger units (line groups and stanza forms). The first chapter serves as an introduction to the study; it recounts what is known about the manuscript, the language, the authorship, and the composition of these poems, it surveys the literary phenomenon generally referred to as "the alliterative revival," and it explains the process involved in the technical analysis. Each of the three chapters which constitute the main body of the study--chapters on rhythm, rhyme, and stanza patterns respectively--follows the same general format. In each the technical feature being analyzed is examined and defined. This is followed by a discussion of the form of the feature in Anglo-Saxon versification and of the changes in its form and use during the three centuries following the Norman Conquest. Finally, the feature is examined as it appears in each of the four poems, following the manuscript order. The results of this analysis tend to support the generally accepted theory that these poems are the work of a single author. They also suggest that the author was more familiar with the accentual-syllabic, end-rhymed, stanzaic verse style that was dominant in England at the time he was writing than he was with the older alliterative verse form reminiscent of that used in Old English poetry that he attempted to recreate to some extent in these poems. Although he was able to recapture some of the qualities of the older verse style, mainly through the use of alliteration and a non-isochronic rhythm, certain features associated with more modern poetic practice--a generally rising rhythm, end-stopped lines, ornamental rather than functional alliteration, and strophic division--appear in all four poems, suggesting not only that the poet's knowledge of the older tradition was limited but also that the influence of current practices was too strong to allow the poet to reject them completely. When the poet attempts to combine obvious features from both prosodies in the same poem, it is apparent that the more modern features are the more important. The study also concludes that the use of 101 stanzas in both Pearl and Sir Gawain was intended, that Purity may be a composite poem, and that Sir Gawain may have been composed in stages.
Contents
Subject
Subject(s)
Pearl (Middle English poem)English language--Versification
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Genre
Dissertation
Description
Format
viii, 336 leaves, bound : illustrations, charts
Department
English