So yesterday I read a very nice translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In the introduction there was something I didn't know: English poetry has rhyme because that was what the Romance languages (like French) used, because the accents were mostly on the last syllable. However, Germanic languages (like English before French got mixed in) had the accent on the first syllable, so they used alliteration to highlight that! Isn't that cool? So all the old English poems, like Sir Gawain and Beowulf, were in alliterative verse! In my ignorance I have been neglecting a full half or more of my linguistic/poetic heritage! This must be remedied at once!
The legacy left me to listen and learn from
Is all held in the murky myth-cloud of Middle English.
Almost apparent but always elusive,
The reticent words will refuse to be read
Shrinking away from me like Sherwood in shadows,
A cross-eyed impression of fair Camelot
Too darkened by distance to dance in the twilight
Never quite near enough to drop into focus.
Trying to see through the ground to the tree-roots -
Just barely an almost and always will be.
Sorry it's kinda short. Also while I was reading the Green Knight, I had to cover up the page that had the original text on it, because I kept trying to see how close the translation got, and it was too frustrating.
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