1. First Blog Posts - Recent
What is Courtly Love?
"Courtly Love is a stylized and idealized treatment of love widely employed during the middle ages.... Courtly love is a noble passion: the courtly love idealizes his beloved; she, his soverign lady, occupies an exalted position above him. His feelings for her ennoble him and make him more worthy; her beauty of body and soul makes him long for union with her, not for passion's sake but a a means of achieving the ultimate in moral excellence. It is a striking paradox that love as presented by a few of the early troubadors in their noble love-songs (cansos) is adulterous and illicit and, at the same time, ennobling and conducive to virtue."
What is an Alba or Aubade?
"A dawn song, ordinarily expressing the regret of two lovers that day has come so soon to separate them.... It has no fixed metrical form, but in Occitan each stanza usually ends with the word 'alba'. The earliest examples in Occitan and Old French date from the end of the 12th century. The alba probably grew out of the medieval watchman's cry, announcing from his tower the passing of the night hours and the return of day. In one alba it is the night watchman who speaks, a friend of the lover's, who has been standing guard. Others are dialogues between lover and beloved, with occasional comments from the author."
(Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Eds. Alex Permineger and T. V. F. Brogan. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993. p. 245, 26)
3. Two Troubador Lyric Poems
Giraut de Bornelh "Reis Glorious"- an alba
4. Group Discussion
Ezra Pound/ Alba
1. When the nightingale to his mate
2. Sings day-long and night late
3. My love and I keep state
4. In bower,
5. In flower,
6. 'Till the watchman on the tower
7. Cry:
8. "Up! Thou rascal, Rise,
9. I see the white
10. Light
11. And the night
12. Flies."
(ca. 1918)
A. In this compressed poem, who is speaking? What is a bower? What does it mean to "keep state"? How do the connotations of words like bower and tower charge the poem with meaning? (Century Dictionary) Are these subtleties of expression more accessible to a listener or a reader?
B. What aspects of courtly love are expressed? How does the poem convey the experience of desire and longing? What effect does the parallel between birds and lovers produce? In terms of theme, does it seem to belong in the troubador tradition?
C. How do the sound patterns in the poem shape it? Does it have several "audible" sections? Do rhythmic patterns (of stressed and non-stressed syllables), rhyme, and line-length compliment the sense of the poem?
D. Suppose that a critic wanted to argue that: "Ezra Pound's 'Alba'" represents what happens when an ancient, sung text is converted into a modern poem for silent reading on the page. What could one point to in order to support this claim? Or to call it into question? To what extent does it qualify as an "alba"?
- experiences
- problems
What is Courtly Love?
"Courtly Love is a stylized and idealized treatment of love widely employed during the middle ages.... Courtly love is a noble passion: the courtly love idealizes his beloved; she, his soverign lady, occupies an exalted position above him. His feelings for her ennoble him and make him more worthy; her beauty of body and soul makes him long for union with her, not for passion's sake but a a means of achieving the ultimate in moral excellence. It is a striking paradox that love as presented by a few of the early troubadors in their noble love-songs (cansos) is adulterous and illicit and, at the same time, ennobling and conducive to virtue."
What is an Alba or Aubade?
"A dawn song, ordinarily expressing the regret of two lovers that day has come so soon to separate them.... It has no fixed metrical form, but in Occitan each stanza usually ends with the word 'alba'. The earliest examples in Occitan and Old French date from the end of the 12th century. The alba probably grew out of the medieval watchman's cry, announcing from his tower the passing of the night hours and the return of day. In one alba it is the night watchman who speaks, a friend of the lover's, who has been standing guard. Others are dialogues between lover and beloved, with occasional comments from the author."
(Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Eds. Alex Permineger and T. V. F. Brogan. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993. p. 245, 26)
3. Two Troubador Lyric Poems
Giraut de Bornelh "Reis Glorious"- an alba
- Read part of Occitan; then see Ezra Pound translation: "I. Compleynt of a gentleman"
- Read part of Occitan
- Compare standard (facing) and Pound translation (II. Avril)
4. Group Discussion
Ezra Pound/ Alba
1. When the nightingale to his mate
2. Sings day-long and night late
3. My love and I keep state
4. In bower,
5. In flower,
6. 'Till the watchman on the tower
7. Cry:
8. "Up! Thou rascal, Rise,
9. I see the white
10. Light
11. And the night
12. Flies."
(ca. 1918)
A. In this compressed poem, who is speaking? What is a bower? What does it mean to "keep state"? How do the connotations of words like bower and tower charge the poem with meaning? (Century Dictionary) Are these subtleties of expression more accessible to a listener or a reader?
B. What aspects of courtly love are expressed? How does the poem convey the experience of desire and longing? What effect does the parallel between birds and lovers produce? In terms of theme, does it seem to belong in the troubador tradition?
C. How do the sound patterns in the poem shape it? Does it have several "audible" sections? Do rhythmic patterns (of stressed and non-stressed syllables), rhyme, and line-length compliment the sense of the poem?
D. Suppose that a critic wanted to argue that: "Ezra Pound's 'Alba'" represents what happens when an ancient, sung text is converted into a modern poem for silent reading on the page. What could one point to in order to support this claim? Or to call it into question? To what extent does it qualify as an "alba"?
Leave a comment