{"id":2617,"date":"1998-03-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1998-03-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/1998\/03\/22\/lliteration\/"},"modified":"2018-01-14T20:14:29","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T04:14:29","slug":"lliteration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/1998\/03\/22\/lliteration\/","title":{"rendered":"ll: Lyrical Lyrics"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n

In a previous column<\/a>, I discussed the Anglo-Saxon verse form in which each line has four or five stressed syllables, at least two of which start with the same consonant sound. The Anglo-Saxons used this form for verse as short as riddles or as long as Beowulf<\/cite>; presumably it aided in memorization, and Anglo-Saxon verse was passed by oral tradition long before it was written down.<\/p>\r\n

By the time of Chaucer's Middle English, a few hundred years after Beowulf<\/cite> was written down, alliterative verse had given way to the imported innovations of rhyme<\/a> and regular meter<\/a>. (The anonymous author of Pearl<\/cite> and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight<\/cite> (roughly contemporary with Chaucer) used frequent alliteration, but it wasn't part of the formal structure of the poems.) From then on, alliteration was largely relegated to occasional use in the work of writers who cared about the sounds of their words.<\/p>\r\n

But in recent times, some poets have combined the Anglo-Saxon alliterative form with rhyme and meter. This combination is grating when done poorly, as it often is, but when done well it's probably my favorite verse form. Here's a quite well-done example, although not every line alliterates. (It's got an original tune, too! To give a general idea to some of you, the tune to the chorus is somewhat similar to a dance tune called \"Planxty Irwin,\" though the tune to the verse is very different. The easiest way to hear the tune is to obtain the tape<\/a> containing a recording of the song...)<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Fair Were the Towers<\/h3>\r\n

melody and lyrics by Cat Faber<\/p>\r\n

[Chorus<\/b>]
\r\nFair were the towers whose stones lie scattered
\r\nFrom Aare to Lyonya they're spoken of yet
\r\nWhite sheep graze where the walls were shattered
\r\nThe towers are gone but we do not forget.<\/p>\r\n

Loud and laughing the horns were heard
\r\nThat heartened the heroes who held there;
\r\nSoft and sighing, the sable bird
\r\nWeeps for the warriors felled there.<\/p>\r\n

Weaponed well the attacker waits
\r\nTo reap what the reaving renders
\r\nThey brought the guards and they broke the gates
\r\nAnd doomed the defiant defenders.<\/p>\r\n

With shining shield Prince Shane was there
\r\nHe barred the breach without bending
\r\nCrowned with blood in his flaxen hair
\r\nCrimson and gold to his ending.<\/p>\r\n

Tam and Tara and burly Brand
\r\nAnd Var with his voice like the thunder
\r\nThe sword was struck from Tangwystl's hand
\r\nThe last of the leaders went under.<\/p>\r\n

[optional verse]
\r\nWhen fall is fine in the yielding year
\r\nWe walk with our sons and our daughters
\r\nWe tell them how there were towers here
\r\nThat warded the width of these waters.<\/p>\r\n

Green the grasses that grace the howe
\r\nAnd pale with the heat of the haying
\r\nBought by blood, there is peace here now
\r\nAnd somewhere a shepherd is playing...<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

The people and places mentioned are apparently from The Deed of Paksenarrion<\/cite>, a trilogy of novels by Elizabeth Moon. (The trilogy mentions the song, but provides no lyrics.)<\/p>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3-llowercase-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2617"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3338,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617\/revisions\/3338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}