Abstract: Medium refers to the language and the conventions of meter. The variations and rapid changes in Middle English were such that the full literary effect of a lyric could hardly be felt fifty miles away or seventy years later, restricting the development of a tradition of lyric verse within English. Until late fourteenth century, the meter was restrictive as well: the four-lift lines, rhymed at the end, had clausal units synchronized with them, blocking many kinds of exploitation of the interaction of medium and matter. This was unlike earlier English verse with four lifts but unrhymed and not end-stopped, and unlike later verse with five-foot lines. These aspects of the medium of the lyrics tell a great deal about the kinds of poems that excel. Diagrams are included that superimpose tree-structures of sentences upon verse-lined text, to illustrate the effects of these aspects of the medium on Middle English lyrics.
Publication Year: 2000
Publication Date: 2000-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
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