Poetry

[boatman]

What's the earliest poem in English?

[incitatus]

This depends on how you define English.....Ealrier versions of the language are not easily identifiable as the modern tongue.....I think Beowulf was in Middle English, and this is often quoted as an early poem....In modern English I suspect that Chaucer may be one of the earlier poets....yes he wrote poetry too. Also there is an anonymous , very early poem in the Quiller-Couch edition of the Oxford English Verse..."Summer is icumen in, Lewd sing cuckoo....". Any of you English degree holders know better?

[mrsdanvers]

R.T. Davies' Medieval English Lyrics has a couple of poems earlier than 'Sumer is...': one 'A Cry to Mary' by St Godric is dated mid 12th century, while an anonymous poem, 'How long the Night Is', is early 13th. Both are recognisably early Middle English rather than Anglo-Saxon. Any earlier bids?

[vittoria]

I am not sure if it counts as English, but the poem "The Battle of Maldon" is very old. I copy below something from a website: www.airflow.net/maldon/ which I found from a quick search on google:- In 1995 AirFlow Design placed a short page on the World Wide Web describing the last stand of Byrhtnoth, Earl of Essex, against a Viking horde in the year of our Lord, 991. A thousand years ago, an anonymous Anglo Saxon writer immortalised the event with the now famous poem, and in the past 2 years our site has become a major World Wide Web resource for the Battle of Maldon, 991AD.

[sgs]

It's not in English, but find out about the oldest poem of all, the Epic of Gilgamesh, at the answerbank article article 2790