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ENGLISH TEXT CONSTRUCTION -- ...
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Final Accepted Manuscript
Author
Wise, Dennis WilsonAffiliation
University of ArizonaIssue Date
2023-11-17Keywords
Literature and Literary TheoryLinguistics and Language
Language and Linguistics
alliterative meter
C.S. Lewis
J.R.R. Tolkien
Modern Alliterative Revival
poetics
Metadata
Show full item recordPublisher
John Benjamins Publishing CompanyCitation
Wise, D. W. (2023). Dating “Sweet Desire” CS Lewis’s education in alliterative poetics. English Text Construction, 16(1), 82-108.Journal
English Text ConstructionRights
© John Benjamins Publishing Company.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien are two key figures in the Modern Alliterative Revival, and each sought to revive Old English poetics with close to absolute metrical fidelity. While scholarship on Tolkien's alliterative verse has seen an uptick in recent years, though, Lewis remains the odd poet out. Nominally, this article attempts to assign a composition date for Lewis's poem "Sweet Desire."My dating to early 1930 associates this text with Lewis's famous conversion to theism. More broadly, this article tracks one revivalist's painstaking adaptation of the alliterative meter into Modern English, outlining the technical challenges faced by Lewis and which other contemporary revivalists must overcome as well.Note
Immediate accessISSN
1874-8767EISSN
1874-8775Version
Final accepted manuscriptae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1075/etc.22017.wis