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This article focuses on poetry written in English from the United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (and Ireland before 1922). However, though the whole of Ireland was politically part of the United Kingdom between January 1801 and December 1922, it is controversial to describe Irish literature as British. For some this includes works by authors from Northern Ireland. The article does not include poetry from other countries where the English language is spoken. The earliest surviving English poetry, written in Anglo-Saxon, the direct predecessor of modern English, may have been composed as early as the 7th century. ==The earliest English poetry== (詳細はBede attributes this to Cædmon (fl. 658–680), who was, according to legend, an illiterate herdsman who produced extemporaneous poetry at a monastery at Whitby.〔Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum.〕 This is generally taken as marking the beginning of Anglo-Saxon poetry. Much of the poetry of the period is difficult to date, or even to arrange chronologically; for example, estimates for the date of the great epic ''Beowulf'' range from AD 608 right through to AD 1000, and there has never been anything even approaching a consensus.〔''See, for example,'' ''Beowulf: a Dual-Language Edition'', Doubleday, New York, NY, 1977; Newton, S., 1993. ''The Origins of Beowulf and the Pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia''. Cambridge.〕 It is possible to identify certain key moments, however. ''The Dream of the Rood'' was written before circa AD 700, when excerpts were carved in runes on the Ruthwell Cross.〔Brendan Cassidy (ed.), ''The Ruthwell Cross'', Princeton University Press (1992).〕 Some poems on historical events, such as ''The Battle of Brunanburh'' (937) and ''The Battle of Maldon'' (991), appear to have been composed shortly after the events in question, and can be dated reasonably precisely in consequence. By and large, however, Anglo-Saxon poetry is categorised by the manuscripts in which it survives, rather than its date of composition. The most important manuscripts are the four great poetical codices of the late 10th and early 11th centuries, known as the Cædmon manuscript, the Vercelli Book, the Exeter Book, and the Beowulf manuscript. While the poetry that has survived is limited in volume, it is wide in breadth. ''Beowulf'' is the only heroic epic to have survived in its entirety, but fragments of others such as Waldere and the Finnesburg Fragment show that it was not unique in its time. Other genres include much religious verse, from devotional works to biblical paraphrase; elegies such as ''The Wanderer'', ''The Seafarer'', and ''The Ruin'' (often taken to be a description of the ruins of Bath); and numerous proverbs, riddles, and charms. With one notable exception (Rhyming Poem), Anglo-Saxon poetry depends on alliterative verse for its structure and any rhyme included is merely ornamental. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「English poetry」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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