Verse of Nothing at All

This medieval poem by William IX represents duality in man, with a perspective of a divine creator. The lyric is named I’ll make a verse of nothing at all. The verse itself is a creation of the author, as is the universe for the creator. The first stanza shows duality by the author writing “I’ll make a verse about nothing at all”, saying the verse will have nothing to do about him or youth, and then going on to say he wrote this while laying on the back of the horse (William IX 325). The next stanza talks about him, and not being able to know exactly when he was born. This shows he has talked about what he stated he was not going to talk about. The next is part is written in almost a code, and it gives the impression of a divine creator. The divine creator in a sense of the question one has when believing in a creator god, why do this when this happened? The duality we see in humanity, which would be a reflection of the duality of the creator. The author explains he has a lovely girl, perhaps representing the relationship of god and man, man and women, depending on if the author was misogynistic. He explains that although she is lovely, he has never seen her, and she never does what he wants her to do, and never gives him peace. One could see how god might think of this universe as a pretty girl, he only knows us from afar, and we never seem to bring him peace.The author says the woman, never treats him right, and never treats him wrong, another duality, but that he would pick her over any other lovely girl. In conclusion, the author uses the relationship between god and man, to show the duality of man.

 

Work Cited

William IX. “Verse of Nothing at All” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Volume B. 3^rd Ed. Martin Puchner. New York: Norton 325-326. Print

From Al-Zahra

The medieval lyric From Al-Zahra by Ibn Zaydun is a poem about his love for a women and his city. Zaydun was in love with Wallada, the daughter of the Umayyad ruler of Cordoba. Zaydun fled to Seville after falling out of political disfavor. The poem shows his longing for his lover, and his city. He starts by talking of remembrance of his city, and how coiling water looks like necklaces. “Delicious those days we spent while fate slept”(Zaydun 323) shows his longing for something previous. The use of “spent” shows it has already happened; he uses the word delicious to show how he perceived the times. He could be using this to talk of how he misses his times in his home town, and he could also be talking about Wallada.The city and Wallada are interchangeable, because Wallada is in the city where he can no longer go, making her no longer accessible as well. “Fate slept” shows again the past, and also alludes to his exile, which was at one point of no concern. The use of flowers is another way the author describes his city and his lover, rosebuds representing his lover, water lilies “perfume they gather up” representing the city. The final metaphor used is that of a horse, his love once being free, is now fenced.  In conclusion, the overall experience of the poem has a nice rhyming scheme, and thoroughly explains the author’s feelings.  This poem uses metaphors in his poem to represent Wallada and his city and how he longs to be with both of them.

Work Cited

Ibn Zaydun. “From Al-Zahra” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Volume B. 3^rd Ed. Martin Puchner. New York: Norton 323-324. Print

Song of Summer

This is another anonymous lyric that hails from Latin descent and the eleventh century is called Song of Summer. The lyric depicts an array of birds and how they all sing their own song. The author specifies of the certain birds in the lyric and their various types of song; turtledove’s moans, a sparrow’s chatter, a nightingale singing, and eagle soaring and singing, a lark’s melodies, and a swallow’s call.(Anonymous) The birds all have their own distinct song, or voice and purpose in the world, and each one is highlight in this lyric. But if you read properly the lyric also gives light on how the songs all work together. Although each bird, or spirit perhaps, has its own identity they can still be seen as a whole through the one song, made up of their individual songs. The lyric is said to be a “conventional description of what is understood in terms of the book of nature”(Anonymous) and when read together the lyric is really talking about a hidden message of a creator God. The lyric says “thus birds everywhere sing the song of summer” (Anonymous) that shows that every bird has its own song, and its own time in the season and that it is of something greater. This can be related also to people, every soul has its own song or identity, and its own place on this world. The something greater is attributed to the creator God. The lyric shows a good correlation of how basic nature can sometimes reveal greater truths.

Bibliography

Anonymous. “The Ruin” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Volume A. 3^rd Ed. Martin Puchner. New York: Norton 1334-1344. Print

The Ruin

 The Ruin is another medieval lyric from an anonymous poet in the nineteenth century. It was part of a collection of lyrics known as the Exeter Book, and was partly damaged by a fire. The lyric is to focus on the Roman ruins that dotted the Anglo-Saxon countryside. The beginning of the lyric starts by examining the ruins, how they have been “shattered by fate”(Anonymous)  and are described as having a hue of “crying giants rotted away”(Anonymous). The lyric talks of how the ruin have been paved in red, meaning blood, and have outlasted various kingdoms, but now all that is left is whatever the earth has decided to hold on to. The lyric does well on its part of visualizing what is left, and what Rome was. It describes what once were bath houses, and places for soldiers. You can visualize the power Rome once had, the way the lyric talks about gold, and treasures. The connotation being that Rome was always expanding, always wanting more. There is a bit of sadness to the poem, when you see the contrast of what one thinks of when visualizing Rome, a very powerful prosperous city, but now all that is left is ruin, only remnants of what once was. The lyric ends with saying the city is still fitting of a round pool heated with stones. This makes the reader feel that although the city was great, were it is now is fitting, a warm remembrance of the city is all the world needs.

Bibliography

Anonymous. “The Ruin” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Volume A. 3^rd Ed. Martin Puchner. New York: Norton 1334-1344. Print

NOTKER BALBULUS- A Hymn to Holy Women

Ok so tonight I have also read A Hymn to Holy Women. Right off the back I have to give a little insight into my mindset while reading this piece. I've seen a lot of movement of the atheist view growing in our society, via media as well as personal friends. I myself do not consider myself to be religious, but I just can not stand the way the leading minds of atheism feel they have to treat the "theistic" people. The only problem is that, even though I feel it wrong to tell a religious person they are wrong, the atheist does present a good amount of evidence. I feel this piece of literature gives a bit of a voice to the religious though, through art, even if found ultimately unneeded, is still joy that is somewhere needed. Alright so that aside here starts the review, the piece starts with Balbulus, a monk, talking about this grand ladder that connects the heavens to Earth. But the ladder is guarded by a dragon so that no one may climb up this coveted ladder. He tells us that the dragon represents the devil, and the ladder is the love of Christ, that helps us get to heaven. He then recalls the incident of the dragon, which is close in anatomy to a snake, that deceived a woman, and asks what good did it do? He is taking about Eve, the first woman, who introduced sin into the world. He then talks of women who are courtesans, "your" vessels which I believe he means tools for the dragon/devil, but are purified by God, and how they are captains in the holy war, and are loyal widows to their dead husbands. I believe he may be talking about nuns since they are married to God, but that could be a stretch. He then talks of a young man, radiant and born with a golden bough in his head, who is born incarnate of a virgin. This is obviously Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary. And then talks of how women, although responsible of bringing sin into the world, are now bearing sons who please God, which in the long run is worse for the devil. I really enjoyed this piece, I felt it must have been "before its time" because it kind of praises woman, and I've always felt a stigma of scapegoating women when it came to religions of Christ. I give this lyric four stars.

Boethius from The Consolation of Philosophy

Ok so tonight I read BOETHIUS from THE CONSOLATION of PHILOSPHY, and to be honest it is pretty confusing. The book braces you that the original text is from Middle English, but that it should still be comprehensible to the modern reader. If comprehensible is used loosely than this is correct. OK, so I even tried to look up some stuff on this medieval lyric, but the explanations proved to be even more confusing, and would definitely sound plagiarized coming from me. So I am going to try and dissect this lyric little by little. The lyric starts out about being happy and references another poet by the name of Orpheus. Boethius states that the wife of Orpheus has had a sad death. The author goes on to maybe describe Orpheus before the death, saying things such as how he would run in the woods, lay beside lions, and basically was carefree, even if he was a "hare" he wouldn't be afraid of the "hound" because he had the gift to make him peaceful with words. But now Orpheus is complaining of unyielding gods, and is withdrawing from his writing, he is can only ask for pardons from Hades', the ruler of the underworld. This is where it becomes muddled for me, the author starts to reference Greek mythology, such as the three headed dog Cerberus, Zeus' famous eternal punishment, and the furies. My two visions of how the lyric ends are this, first that Orpheus makes peace with the loss of his love, and everything keeps moving in the world, "whatever excellence he takes with him". Or, Orpheus kills himself because he wasn't to be with his deceased love, "we grant that the man his wife to go with him", the author also says Orpheus "saw, lost, killed." which could mean killed something else or himself. All together I did enjoy the lyric if what I interpreted is correct, and since this is my first lyric I'm going to give it three stars for fun, all others shall be in reference to this one.