Becoming a Poet in Anglo-Saxon England, by Emily V. Thornbury

Emily Thornbury’s book is an important study of the practice of poetic composition in Anglo-Saxon England. At its heart is a concern to view poetry as a social and linguistic phenomenon, and to consider it in relation to wider forms of community. In many cases, poetry appears to assume some form of judgemental audience: it therefore becomes meaningful to speak of ‘poetic communities’. A notable feature is the book’s scope, spanning the whole of the Anglo-Saxon period, and covering Anglo-Latin output (where communities can sometimes be reconstructed with relative precision) and vernacular poetry (where contexts are often uncertain). Part of Thornbury’s argument is that poets varied in their relationship to poetic communities: her account includes the example of Bede, as a poet working at a distance from wider norms, and also examples of communities in isolation. Her readings are supported by insightful technical analysis in the areas of metre, diction and intertextual reference, and by an instinct for the teasing out of poetic utterances.

Anglo saxon · Art · Genealogy · Literature · New england · Political science · Classics · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History