|
In a very full selection about half the space is devoted to short poems; religious and secular lyrics as well as moral, political, polemical and comic verse. The other half is taken up with short narrative poems, among them some of the jewels of medieval literature: 'Pearl', one of the finest elegies in English, 'Patience', which tells the story of Jonah and the Whale, and 'Sir Orfeo', a Breton lay. As well as a general introduction the translator Brian Stone has included a number of short essays in which he discusses the poems theme by theme, providing critical insights and illuminating their medieval background.
|
