Near-Sameness in Early Insular Metrics

Oral Ancestry and Aesthetic Potential

Bibliographic Data

ID4987720
AuthorsHildegard L C Tristram (corresponding author)
Year1995
Volume16
Issue3
Pages445
Publication date1995-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePoetics Today (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0333-5372 • E-ISSN: 1527-5507
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1773174
OpenAlexW2322958037
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited2

The earliest types of versification of the Insular literatures in the early middles ages (Old English, Old Welsh, Old Irish, Middle Breton) were oral-derived, i.e. orally composed and intended for listening audiences. The written records of such early poems, poreserved in the manuscripts, still reflect the flexibility of the metriccal constraints. This type of poetry is characterised by the avoidance of the total identity of the recurrent phonetic features. Rhyme is 'only' near-rhyme, alliteration only near-alliteration, accentuality only near-accentual recurrence, syllabicity only near-syllabicity etc.. This type of oral-derived aesthetics requires a very fine ear for the distinction and appreciation of the metrical near-samenesses and probably a prolongued training in the acquisition of metrical skills on teh part of the poet. In the later written poetries, which were both literate in composition and reception ("reading"), the ear was replaced by the eye. THis seems ot have required identical recurrence of metrical ffeatures rather than near-identities, ultimately leading to forms like 'rime riche' (like in French poetry), which would have been considered to be cloying in the early oral(-derived) context. In other words, the aesthetic potential of the metrical constraints depends on the medium of communication

Aesthetics · Art · History · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and language evolution · Psychology

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