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Laisse
A laisse is a type of stanza, of varying length, found in medieval French literature, specifically medieval French epic poetry (the ''chanson de geste''), such as ''The Song of Roland''. In early works, each laisse was made up of (mono) assonanced verses, although the appearance of (mono) rhymed laisses was increasingly common in later poems.Princeton. Within a poem, the length of each separate laisse is variable (whereas the metric length of the verses is invariable, each verse having the same syllable length, typically decasyllables or, occasionally, alexandrines. The laisse is characterized by stereotyped phrases and formulas and frequently repeated themes and motifs,Jean Rychner, 1955. Quoted in Brault, I. Introduction, p. 8. including repetitions of material from one laisse to another. Such repetitions and formulaic structures are common of orality and oral-formulaic composition. When medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted ap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Song Of Roland
''The Song of Roland'' (french: La Chanson de Roland) is an 11th-century ''chanson de geste'' based on the Frankish military leader Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778 AD, during the reign of the Carolingian king Charlemagne. It is the oldest surviving major work of French literature. It exists in various manuscript versions, which testify to its enormous and enduring popularity in Medieval and Renaissance literature from the 12th to 16th centuries. The epic poem written in Vulgar Latin is the first and one of the most outstanding examples of the ''chanson de geste'', a literary form that flourished between the 11th and 16th centuries in Medieval Europe and celebrated legendary deeds. The date of composition is put in the period between 1040 AD and 1115 AD; an early version began around 1040 AD with additions and alterations made up until about 1115 AD. The final text contains about 4,000 lines of poetry. Manuscripts and dating Although set in the Carolingian era, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and Metre (poetry), metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. There are many different : Stanzaic form, forms of stanzas. Some stanzaic forms are simple, such as four-line quatrains. Other forms are more complex, such as the Spenserian stanza. Fixed verse, Fixed verse poems, such as sestinas, can be defined by the number and form of their stanzas. The stanza has also been known by terms such as ''batch'', ''fit'', and ''stave''. The term ''stanza'' has a similar meaning to ''strophe'', though ''strophe'' sometimes refers to an irregular set of lines, as opposed to regular, rhymed stanzas. Even though the term "stanza" is taken from Italian, in the Italian language the word "strofa" is more commonly used. In music, groups of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medieval French Literature
Medieval French literature is, for the purpose of this article, Medieval literature written in Oïl languages (particularly Old French and early Middle French) during the period from the eleventh century to the end of the fifteenth century. The material and cultural conditions in France and associated territories around the year 1100 unleashed what the scholar Charles Homer Haskins termed the " Renaissance of the 12th century" and, for over the next hundred years, writers, " jongleurs", "clercs" and poets produced a profusion of remarkable creative works in all genres. Although the dynastic struggles of the Hundred Years' War and the Black Death pandemic of the fourteenth century in many ways curtailed this creative production, the fifteenth century laid the groundwork for the French Renaissance. Language Up to roughly 1340, the Romance languages spoken in the Middle Ages in the northern half of what is today France are collectively known as "ancien français" ("Old French") ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epic Poetry
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. Etymology The English word ''epic'' comes from Latin ''epicus'', which itself comes from the Ancient Greek adjective (''epikos''), from (''epos''), "word, story, poem." In ancient Greek, 'epic' could refer to all poetry in dactylic hexameter (''epea''), which included not only Homer but also the wisdom poetry of Hesiod, the utterances of the Delphic oracle, and the strange theological verses attributed to Orpheus. Later tradition, however, has restricted the term 'epic' to ''heroic epic'', as described in this article. Overview Originating before the invention of writing, primary epics, such as those of Homer, were composed by bards who used complex rhetorical and metrical schemes by which they could memorize the epic as received i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chanson De Geste
The ''chanson de geste'' (, from Latin 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th centuries, shortly before the emergence of the lyric poetry of the troubadours and trouvères, and the earliest verse romances. They reached their highest point of acceptance in the period 1150–1250.Hasenohr, 242. Composed in verse, these narrative poems of moderate length (averaging 4000 lines) were originally sung, or (later) recited, by minstrels or jongleurs. More than one hundred ''chansons de geste'' have survived in approximately three hundred manuscripts''La Chanson de Roland,'' 12. that date from the 12th to the 15th century. Origins Since the 19th century, much critical debate has centered on the origins of the ''chansons de geste'', and particularly on explaining the length of time between the composition of the ''chansons'' a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Assonance
Assonance is a resemblance in the sounds of words/syllables either between their vowels (e.g., ''meat, bean'') or between their consonants (e.g., ''keep, cape''). However, assonance between consonants is generally called ''consonance'' in American usage. The two types are often combined, as between the words ''six'' and ''switch'', in which the vowels are identical, and the consonants are similar but not completely identical. If there is repetition of the same vowel or some similar vowels in literary work, especially in stressed syllables, this may be termed "vowel harmony" in poetry (though linguists have a different definition of "vowel harmony"). A special case of assonance is rhyme, in which the endings of words (generally beginning with the vowel sound of the last stressed syllable) are identical—as in ''fog'' and ''log'' or ''history'' and ''mystery''. Vocalic assonance is an important element in verse. Assonance occurs more often in verse than in prose; it is used in Eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic effect in the final position of lines within poems or songs. More broadly, a rhyme may also variously refer to other types of similar sounds near the ends of two or more words. Furthermore, the word ''rhyme'' has come to be sometimes used as a shorthand term for any brief poem, such as a nursery rhyme or Balliol rhyme. Etymology The word derives from Old French ''rime'' or ''ryme'', which might be derived from Old Frankish ''rīm'', a Germanic term meaning "series, sequence" attested in Old English (Old English ''rīm'' meaning "enumeration, series, numeral") and Old High German ''rīm'', ultimately cognate to Old Irish ''rím'', Greek ' ''arithmos'' "number". Alternatively, the Old French words may derive from Latin ''rhythmus'', from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decasyllable
Decasyllable (Italian: ''decasillabo'', French: ''décasyllabe'', Serbian: ''десетерац'', ''deseterac'') is a poetic meter of ten syllables used in poetic traditions of syllabic verse. In languages with a stress accent (accentual verse), it is the equivalent of pentameter with iambs or trochees (particularly iambic pentameter). Medieval French heroic epics (the ''chansons de geste'') were most often composed in 10 syllable verses (from which, the decasyllable was termed "heroic verse"), generally with a regular caesura after the fourth syllable. (The medieval French romance (''roman'') was, however, most often written in 8 syllable (or ''octosyllable'') verse.) Use of the 10 syllable line in French poetry was eclipsed by the 12 syllable alexandrine line, particularly after the 16th century. Paul Valéry's great poem "The Graveyard by the Sea" (Le Cimetière marin) is, however, written in decasyllables. Similarly, South Slavic and in particular Serbian epic po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Alexandrine
The French alexandrine (french: alexandrin) is a syllabic poetic metre of (nominally and typically) 12 syllables with a medial caesura dividing the line into two hemistichs (half-lines) of six syllables each. It was the dominant long line of French poetry from the 17th through the 19th century, and influenced many other European literatures which developed alexandrines of their own. 12th to 15th centuries Genesis According to verse historian Mikhail Gasparov, the French alexandrine developed from the Ambrosian octosyllable, × – u – × – u × Aeterne rerum conditor by gradually losing the final two syllables, × – u – × – Aeterne rerum cond (construct) then doubling this line in a syllabic context with phrasal stress rather than length as a marker. Rise and decline The earliest recorded use of alexandrines is in the Medieval French poem ''Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne'' of 1150, but the name derives from their more famous use in part of the '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orality
Orality is thought and verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy (especially writing and print) are unfamiliar to most of the population. The study of orality is closely allied to the study of oral tradition. The term "orality" has been used in a variety of ways, often to describe, in a generalised fashion, the structures of consciousness found in cultures that do not employ, or employ minimally, the technologies of writing. Walter J. Ong's work was foundational for the study of orality, and exemplifies the fact that despite the striking success and subsequent power of written language, the vast majority of languages are never written, and the basic orality of language is permanent. In his later publications Ong distinguishes between two forms of orality: 'primary orality' and 'secondary orality'. Primary orality refers to thought and expression un-touched by the culture of writing of print; ''secondary orality'' is explained by Ong as oral culture define ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oral-formulaic Composition
Oral-formulaic composition is a theory that originated in the scholarly study of epic poetry and developed in the second quarter of the twentieth century. It seeks to explain two related issues: # the process by which oral poets improvise poetry # the reasons for orally improvised poetry (or written poetry deriving from traditions of oral improvisation) having the characteristics that it does The key idea of the theory is that poets have a store of formulae (a formula being 'an expression that is regularly used, under the same metrical conditions, to express a particular essential idea') and that by linking the formulae in conventionalised ways, poets can rapidly compose verse. Antoine Meillet expressed the idea in 1923, thus: In the hands of Meillet's student Milman Parry (1902-1935), and subsequently the latter's student Albert Lord (1912-1991), the approach transformed the study of ancient and medieval poetry and of oral poetry generally. The main exponent and developer of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. Population decline, counterurbanisation, the collapse of centralized authority, invasions, and mass migrations of tribes, which had begun in late antiquity, continued into the Early Middle Ages. The large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East—most recently part of the Eastern Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
