LYRIC AND GNOME IN OLD ENGLISH POETRY (MEDIEVAL, MAXIMS, ELEGY, WISDOM LITERATURE, EXETER BOOK).
Item
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Title
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LYRIC AND GNOME IN OLD ENGLISH POETRY (MEDIEVAL, MAXIMS, ELEGY, WISDOM LITERATURE, EXETER BOOK).
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Identifier
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AAI8515628
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identifier
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8515628
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Creator
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GILLES, SEALY ANN.
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Contributor
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Robert O. Payne
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Date
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1985
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, Medieval
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Abstract
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Six Old English poems, previously designated elegies, are here called gnomic lyrics and shown to constitute a subgenre of the lyric kind. This catagory embraces The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Wife's Lament, Resignation 70-118, The Riming Poem, and Deor. The appellation depends upon a number of shared formal and thematic characteristics, chief among which is a strong and specific connection to the gnomic tradition. This tradition is most cogently represented in Old English by the collections Maxims I and II.;Maxims I and II share concerns and strategies with other sapiential collections, such as The Book of Proverbs and the Norse Havamal. They mix ethical dicta, pragmatic advice and pagan relics. Christianity is most dramatically embodied in Maxims IA, which I see as a fragment of a dialogue between a pagan and a Christian seer.;In the lyrics, the voice of the exile tests precepts from the sapiential tradition against isolation, grief and physical hardship. The gnomes are, in some instances, found wanting. They form no bulwark against the extremities of the exilic condition. However, they do play a crucial role in the distancing of lament.;Each lyric is shown to develop from limited emotive response into gnomic generalization. Language becomes less descriptive and more reflective. Individual story gives way to exilic type. And the suffering which gave rise to lament is transmuted into anguished meditation on the fates of eorls and the disintegration of a beloved society.;The dissertation rests on two procedures. A close analysis of Celtic, Germanic, Latin and homiletic sources helps elucidate obscurities, especially in The Wife's Lament, and lends support for secular interpretations of passages hitherto considered essential to a Christian subtext. Secondly, close textual analysis, especially of thematic and clausal poetic variation, identifies techniques crucial to the passage from lament into wisdom.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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English
