num_pages: 240
description: This new collection of essays is devoted to Middle English poems and poets whose considerable literary achievements are overshadowed by the more usual works of the present-day taught canon. Eight of the twelve essays focus on single The Owl and the Nightingale, The Cursor Mundi, The Simonie , the lyric "Ne mai no lewed lued" from MS Harley 2253, The Siege of Jerusalem, St Erkenwald, The Castle of Perseverance and the N-Town Cycle's Mary Play . The remaining four are devoted to early Middle English love lyrics, fourteenth-century stanzaic religious poems, late Middle English religious lyrics and the plays of the Wakefield Master. The overall theme of the book is how the poetry in question is distinctive and outstanding, rather than representative. Approaches range from the literary-historical placing of poems in terms of genre to detailed studies of poetic method and technique. The aim is to increase an appreciation of the qualities of under-rated poetry, and to bring out the individual achievement of the writers concerned; the essays also demonstrate how the expression of individual creative skill is often dependent upon pre-existing traditions.Dr O.S. PICKERING is Associate Lecturer in English at the University of Leeds, where he is a member of the senior staff of the University Library. ALEXANDRA BARRATT, JOHN J. THOMPSON, KARL REICHL, DEREK PEARSALL, THORLAC TURVILLE-PETRE, O.S. PICKERING, DAVID LAWTON, JOHN BURROW, JULIA BOFFEY, AVRIL HENRY, MYRA STOKES, PETER MEREDITH Dr O.S. PICKERING is Associate Lecturer in English at the University of Leeds, where he is a member of the senior staff of the University Library. ALEXANDRA BARRATT, JOHN J. THOMPSON, KARL REICHL, DEREK PEARSALL, THORLAC TURVILLE-PETRE, O.S. PICKTable of Contents`Avian Self-Fashioning and Self-Doubt in The Owl and the Nightingale'. - Alexandra Barratt`The Governance of the English The Cursor Mundi and its French Tradition'. - John J. Thompson`The `Charms of Simplicity': Popular Strains in the Early Middle English Love Lyric'. - Karl Reichl`The Timelessness of the Simonie'. - Derek Pearsall`English Quaint and Strange in `Ne mai no lewed lued'. - Thorlac Turville-Petre`Performance, Verse and Occasion in the N-Town Mary Play'. - Oliver S Pickering`Titus Goes Hunting and The Poetics of Recreation and Revenge in The Siege of Jerusalem'. - David Lawton`Redundancy in Alliteratuve St Erkenwald'. -``Loke on this wrytyng, man, for thi devocion': Focal Texts in Some Later Middle English Religious Lyrics'. - Julia Boffey`The Dramatic Function of Rhyme and Stanza Patterns in The Castle of Perseverance'. - Avril Henry`Masters and Servants in the Plays of the Wakefield Master'. - Myra Stokes`Performance, Verse and Occasion in the N-Town Mary Play'. -
language: English
title: Individuality and Achievement in Middle English Poetry
titlecomplete: Individuality and Achievement in Middle English Poetry
ratings_count: 1
publisher: D.S. Brewer