Lyrical Poetry and the Troubadours

Superficially, Troubadour poetry seems to contrast greatly to the lyrical poetry of the ancient Greeks. Both, however, are classified as Lyrical Poetry. Though perhaps the Troubadour’s poems perhaps weren’t intended to be sung specifically to a Lyre, but the musicality of the poetry remains integral to the reader’s understanding of the poems.  It is in the attention to word pattern and poetic rhythm where one finds the similarities between troubadour poetry and that of the ancient Greeks.

            The complex poem, “Le ferm voler qu’el cor m’entra”  by Arnaut Daniel exemplifies the complex word patterns that appear throughout the Troubadour poetry. Throughout the entire poem, each line ends with the words,"enter", "nail", "soul", "rod", "uncle", or "room". Furthermore, Daniel takes great pains so that the placement of the words in one stanza is always different from that of every other stanza. For example, “nail” appears in the second line of stanza one, but in the fourth, fifth, third, sixth, and first lines of the respective stanzas. The repetition of the end words gives the poem a structure and pattern, for the reader comes to expect these words in the following lines. Furthermore, Daniels connects each stanza to its predecessor by having the end word which appeared in the final lines of the previous stanza appear as the final word in the following stanza’s first line. By placing the common ending words in the end and beginning of the stanzas, Daniels creates continuity and flow. These common words create a rhythm which propel the reader forward.  

Although Daniels creates many patterns, he also encorporates some discord into his poetry. Though the same end words appear in each stanza, he varying the lines within which the words appear. In doing so, Daniels breaks up the monotony that patterns can sometimes bring. He does this, perhaps, to engage the listener. If the poem becomes too rhythmic, the reader can too easily predict what the next stanza will say, and thus lose interest in reading the entire poem. Therefore, though the repetition of common end words lends a sort of lyrical rhythm to the poetry, the variance of line placement breaks up the monotony that a “”sing songy” poem sometimes portrays. As a result, Daniels creates a lyrical poem, which is unique from those of the Ancient Greeks.

Courtly Love

Within The Golden Age of troubadour poetry, poets examine love, longing, lust, and desire. All these emotions culminate within the overarching theme of courtly love, which is the idea of a man idealizing a woman, for whom he can never obtain, for she is either above his status, married, or resident of some far off land. Regardless of the reason, it is this unobtainability around which the poems hinge. Without that distance, be it physical or emotional, the poets would have nothing to write about. Thus their poetry would cease to exist. While the Troubador poets express courtly love in different ways, there remain similarities between the theme’s developments. The poetd often represents courtly love as a dichotomy, for it lends a man a feeling of both intense pleasure and paint. The troubadour poets, Arnaut Daniel, Reimbaut de vaquieras , and Gavaudan, , examine the dichotomy, and idealization of courtly love.

            In I Never Had It But it Holds Me, Daniels describes the juxtaposition between pleasure and pain in courtly love. He emphasizes his dichotomous emotions by saying,

My heart burns/ but my eyes are fed,/because only / seeing her / has been left to me. / You see what keps me alive! (28-33)

By describing his heart as burning, Daniels parallels the burned heart to how his love has caused him pain. Heat can both sustain and comfort man. It can soothe aching muscles, and warm chilled limbs. However, when the heat becomes too intense, man is burned. Similarly, to heat, his love both sustains him, and causes him great pain. The sight of his beloved keeps him sustained, but the inability to touch her burns his heart to a crisp.

            Vaquieres’s poem Lady, so much I have endeared you exemplifies the adoring idealization the troubadour poets impose upon their beloved. In the third stanza, Vaquieres details all the lady’s virtues. He deems her “Kind and Wise, / merry and valiant and learned”(31-33). It remains possible that this lady could embody all these qualities. However, it is much more likely that the poet merely exercises the characteristic idealization of the Troubadors. To be successful at their craft, the poets need to write a poem filled with heartfelt longing, and in order to desrve such a emotionally wraught poem, the women must exemplify all qualities that men of the times would value. Therefore, many times, the poets take a real woman as a model, but embellish their characters to achieve that ideal embodiment of man’s desire.

            Interestingly, In Gauvudan’s poem, I am not like the other troubadors, Gauvudan recognizes the common tactic of idealizating woman and warns against it. he exclaims, “for imagining makes the wise fall / if sense doesn’t enlighten him”(17-18). Here, Gauvudan recognizes the trappings of courtly love. He explains that if a man meets a woman, and builds her up to a fantastic status, he will surely be disappointed. No woman, nor man for that matter, if perfect. Therefore, by imagining them as so, they will only ever disappoint you. This idealization, however, forms the backbone of Troubador poetry. Therefore, because Gauvudan revolts against this idealization, it makes sense that he asserts his desire to be disassociated with the troubadors.  

            

Troubadours' lyric poetry

Troubadours' poetry is considered as lyric poetry because it shares the basic concept of conveying the poet's personal emotions with musical rhythms. 

First thing that came into my mind is that troubadours write “songs.” The musical component of the poem is what makes poetry “lyric,” as its name shows. Many troubadours specifically states in their poems that they write “songs.” One example is found in the poem “The Ladies with the Cat,” by Peiteus:

While sound asleep, I’ll walk along

In sunshine, making up my song.

Some ladies get the rules all wrong;

I’ll tell you who:

The ones that turn a knight’s love down

            And scorn it, too (1-6).

In this poem, the poet says that he is making his “song.” While he is saying that, he uses rhyming words such as “song” and “wrong,” and “who” and “too” to make the poem sound more beautiful, like a song.

Also, in this poem, Peiteus is displaying his emotion as he criticizes the ladies who “turn a knight’s love down and scorn it.” Where he says, “I’ll walk along,” and “I’ll tell you who,” he writes in first person, just like many Greek lyric poets do. He explicitly displays his dislike toward certain kind of ladies by saying, “Some ladies get the rules all wrong.”

The theme of love is widely discusses by many Greek lyric poets such as Sappho, Anarcreon, and Archilochus. By looking at the last two lines of the previous poem, readers can see how Peiteus values love. The fact that many other troubadours, such as Bernart de Ventadorn and Comtessa de Dia, write heavily about love remind me of the Greek lyric poems that also discuss about love a lot.

Therefore, by looking at the musical component, content, and theme, it is not difficult to say that Troubadours’ poems are described as lyric poems. 

Troubadour Lyric Poetry

            While the verses of the Troubadours are very distinct compared to the lyric poetry of the Greeks and the Romans, their works can still be classified as lyric poetry in their own right. The traditional definition of lyric poetry is poetry that is composed to be accompanied by the lyre; though the Troubadours did not write their verses with this intention, their close attention to rhythmic structure means that their works could potentially be set to music, regardless of whether or not they actually were. The themes, structures, and forms of the Troubadours’ poetry may vary across the genre, but there is a consistent focus on rhyming and metrical structures that give their work a strong lyrical element.

            In “A Love Afar” by Juafre Rudel, for instance, there is an evident rhyme structure that is consistent throughout the stanzas. The first stanza follows an ABABCCD pattern, and each of the following stanzas follows the same structure with only the sounds of the first and third lines and the fifth and sixth lines changing. Every second and fourth line in the stanzas ends with “far” or “afar”, and every last line ends with a word that rhymes with “ill”. This constant repetition of sounds creates a uniform melody within the poem, thus allowing it to be considered lyric poetry.

            Many of the rhyme schemes in the Troubadours’ poetry are not necessarily immediately apparent, as they often have intricate structures rather than a simple end-rhyme pattern. In “Splendid Are the Flowers Reversed” by Raimbaut d’Aurenga, for example, there is not a traditional rhyme structure, but instead the corresponding lines of each stanza end with the same word. The first line of each stanza, for example, ends with “reversed”, the second with “hills”, the next with “frost” and so forth. While not a traditional rhyme, this still creates a rhythmic unity that allows it to be considered lyric poetry. Overall, the Troubadours’ attentions to such structures are what allow their works to be classified as lyric poetry despite not falling under its classical definition.

            

Blog Post 13- Dante and the Troubadours on Courtly Love

Bernart de Ventadorn’s When Tender Grass and Leaves Appear

When tender grass and leaves appear

While buds along the branches throng,

The nightingale so high and clear

Uplifts his voice to spill his song;

Joy in the bird and full joy in the flower,

(1)Joy in myself and my lady much more.

Joy quite surrounds me; I live joy-posessed

Yet here’s one joy that outjoys all the rest.

(2)Alas, half dead with love’s dismay,

Sometimes my sad thoughts fret me so

That thieves could carry me away

And I would be the last to know.

(3)Love, in God’s name, I have no least defense,

No other lord and but very few friends;

You should go torment my Lady this way;

Otherwise (4)love’s pain might waste me away.

I marvel how I still endure

To never let my longing show;

(5)At any time I look at her

Her lovely eyes adorn her so,

(6)All my keen urges run straight toward her there,

Where I’d have turned first, if not for this fear.

None that I’ve seen is so trim and well made,

Formed for love’s role though hard to persuade.

I fear and cherish her so well

And (7)passionately love her so,

Yet of this love I dare not tell

Nor ask the gifts she might bestow.

She, knowing all of my sorrow and pains,

(8)Treats me with honor and grace when she deigns;

Yet when she deigns it, (9)I make do with less

Lest blame should fall on her chaste guiltlessness.

I wish that I could cast a spell;

I’d turn each new foe into a child

So none of them could hear or tell

The tales by which our love’s defiled.

Then I could see her, most lovely and dear,

Those beauteous eyes and that color so clear,

Swiftly I’d kiss her sweet mouth, left and right;

We’d leave the marks a whole month in plain sight.

If I could find her all alone,

Sleeping or playing so for fun,

I’d steal the sweetest kiss I’ve known—

I lack the worth to ask for one.

(10)Lady, by God, our love’s getting nowhere;

Time flies away while we lose the best share

We must speak only with signs or by slight;

(11)Boldness won’t help us, but slyness just might.

(12)Messenger, go seek my Lady so fair,

Scorning me not that I dare not go there.

Elements of Dante’s story arc seen in Bertran de Ventadorn’s poem:

1.       The final three lines of the first stanza of Bertran’s poem indicate the joy that possesses him through his lady, illustrating the courtly love principle of idealization. These lines are similar to Dante’s repeated idea that all of his joy comes from Beatrice, however Bertran has many other joys yet this one joy of his love “outjoys all the rest”.

2.       The first four lines of the second stanza of Bertran’s poem explain the effect of Bertran’s thoughts of his love on him. The image of being “half dead” relates to the pain of courtly love and to Dante’s vision of his personal death in the face of Love. The way Bertran cannot move and would not notice if “thieves [stole] [him] away” is similar to the way Dante is so transfixed when he sees his love that he zones our and does not notice anything else. The reader understands the impact of seeing Beatrice on Dante when other women make fun of the way he looks possessed.

3.       The characterization of Love as a lord working “in God’s name” and the idea that Bertran has “very few friends” and little with which to defend himself is highly similar to the way that Dante has his first friend and his second friend, but doesn’t seem to have relations with many others in the town. He has his screens, yet the reader is unsure as to whether or not he ever truly knows his screens. The image of Love as a God and lord over Bertran is nearly identical to Dante’s relationship with Love.

4.       Again, Bertran characterizes love as a bringer of pain and a controlling force, similar to the way Love makes Dante cry when he is at a distance from Beatrice and controls him at all times.

5.       The importance of vision and the impact of looking at one’s love is emphasized here by Bertran, where he describes the impact looking at her has on him. Dante’s whole relationship with Beatrice comes from her greetings and his visual perception of her.

6.       The urges and fear elements that Bertran discusses in this section of the poem are completely dissimilar from the way that Dante feels for Beatrice. Dante insists that he receives joy from only her greeting and wants nothing else, where Bertran blatantly –here and later in the poem- insinuates his sexual desires for his love.

7.       The idea that love must be kept secret, however passionate, is an element not always seen in courtly love. The association of courtly love with affairs is the closest aspect that creates a need for secrecy. Dante also must keep his love for Beatrice a secret, in order to protect their reputations, primarily hers. This is why Love makes Dante use screens for much of his life.

8.       The graciousness of Bertran’s lady is altogether identical to the name Dante gives Beatrice: the very gracious lady. However, the interactions of Bertran and his lady are markedly more intimate than simple formal greetings; according to Bertran’s vida, the lady of which he speaks is his Lord’s wife, so they know one another well.

9.       The idea that Bertran should not interact with his lady in an attempt to not hurt her reputation is exemplary of the distance of Courtly Love and the nature of love as an affair from the formal, rational relationship of marriage. In Dante’s story arc, this parallels the fact that Love tells Dante to stay away from Beatrice and gives him screen loves such that Dante does not hurt Beatrice’s reputation.

10.   The “by God” in this line, could be interpreted to be a simple exclamation of dissatisfaction, or else an indication that it was God’s design for their love to not progress. If the latter is the case, this would parallel Dante’s story arc where Love is a sort of lord over Dante with godly resonance (i.e. when Love appears in white robes) and keeps Dante from interacting directly with Beatrice such that he does not harm her reputation. In addition, this distance is one of the tropes of courtly love.

11.   Bertran again indicates a need for secrecy to attain the relationship he desires with his love. This is similar to Dante’s need for screens to keep his love secret, yet the familiarity and use of “us” indicates a communal effort by Bertran and his love to keep their love a secret affair, where Dante’s relationship is one-sided. Dante works to keep his love for Beatrice a secret, but the reader has no indication that Beatrice returns his love and is also keeping it a secret.

12.   The use of a messenger to sing a song of love to one’s love is another trope of courtly love. In Dante’s case, this parallels his ballad telling his ballad what to say within itself to Beatrice. The idea that there must be a medium through which love is expressed is demonstrative of the distance of courtly love.  

Troubadours and Lyric Poetry

Why are the troubadours still considered lyric poetry?

The troubadours are still lyric poetry because they use the medium of music, and because they express their emotion through the poetry. In their situation, they use songs. As stated in the introduction of Lark in the Morning, they were romanticized as the minstrels with the “trunk-hose and the light guitar”, which emphasizes their use of song. Though the melodies to the poems have been lost for centuries, even the poets respond to their use of song in their works. For example, Marcabru states in “The Cleansing Place” that “Marcabru wrote the words and song./Hear what he says:” (55). Later in the poem he discusses “how I [Marcabru] grieve[s]”, which shows his outpouring of emotion (55). Here, we can emphasize “song”, “hear”, and “grieve” as support for this argument. For them, their songs and poems are synonymous. In this way, the troubadour’s songs are different from Latin lyric poetry, which did not have any music to accompany it, and Greek lyric poetry, which simply sometimes had the lyre, but was no set to it.  Though all three are called Lyric poetry because of the expression of emotion in all three, they are different in this way.

Why Troubadour poetry is lyric poetry

Although Troubador poetry and Greek Lyric poetry are very different in some ways, Troubador poetry should still be considered lyric poetry.  A lot of times in Troubador poetry devotion to a beloved is a common theme and so too in Lyric poetry.  For example in A Love Afar by Jaufre Rudel is all about a beloved that is far away and cannot actually be had.  Unlike Greek poetry is has a specific rhyme scheme and there is something very lyrical about that aspect of this poem even though it isn’t something that is normally sung.  Furthermore, this poem makes references to nature regarding love similar to those that appear in traditional lyric poetry.  For example:

“No sweet birds’ song, no flowering briar/ Content me more than winter’s chill”. 

These lines are explaining how Rudel likes the winter better because everything that has to do with spring reminds him of his love afar that he can never be with.   In addition, like in other lyric poetry, Rudel asks the gods for help:

“Such tracks and trails, such land and sea,/ Lie still between my love and me/ that all must lie in God’s good will”. 

He is leaving it up to God to help him find his love which is what the Greeks do to.  However it seems here that Rudel is praying to one god as opposed to the Greeks who prayed to many.