Forgotten Ground Regained
ISSN 2996-6353
New Series Issue 9, Winter, 2026
INTRODUCTION
In the centuries before 1066, England was one of the first European countries with a thriving vernacular literature. Old English served as a vehicle for poetry, history, and Christian devotions. And that poetry was, of course, alliterative.
The story of Cædmon is a good place to start. He was a cowherd who worked at a monastery – and suffered the additional embarrassment, that he was no good at poetry or at playing the lyre, manly accomplishments much valued for evening entertainment. But then, one evening, as he fell asleep among the animals he cared for, he had a dream. In the dream, he was told to sing of the beginning of created things. At first he refused; but when he woke, he had composed a poem praising God, the Creater of the Earth. When he recited it to the abbess of the monastery, she asked him, by way of a test, to compose another poem. The result satisfied her that his poetry was a true gift from God, and in short order, he was inducted into monastic orders, given a course of education in sacred history and doctrine, and launched into a new, poetic career. Unfortunately, only one of his poems (“Cædmon’s Hymn”) has been preserved, but his story reveals much about the society in which he lived: deeply Christian and committed to expressing itself in the vernacular. In this society, alliterative verse, which had been the vehicle for Pagan myths and legends, took on a new life as a vehicle for the Christian imagination.
The Christian connections of alliterative verse cannot be neglected when we think about its modern revival. The Inklings, especially C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, are as well known for their Christian as for their medievalist commitments. Among Tolkien’s alliterative accomplishments, we must note his translations of Pearl and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – sophisticated expressions of a Christian society, in a vernacular, 14th-century tongue descended from Cædmon’s language, although much changed by the Norman conquest and by the passage of time. And there are quite a few Christian voices to be found in the modern alliterative revival, as can be confirmed by examining my site’s pages for alliterative verse on Christian and Biblical themes.
The psalm is a poetic form that derives from the Hebrew Scriptures, and as such, is beloved of both Jews and Christians. As a poetic form, the psalm combines an act of public worship with the expression of deep personal feeling. Not all of the poems presented in this issue are Psalms, nor are all of them Christian, but all of them evoke a meditative, lyrical mode that remind me, at least, of King David’s very personal psalmody.
I have arranged the poems in this issue into rough thematic groups. The first group consists of lyrical, reflective poems (Sarah Monnier’s “Psalm for the Swing Set”, Math Jones’ “Song-form” and “Wyrd”, D.A. Cooper’s “On Odin’s Journey”, Tom Pain’s “Song-singing”, Eric Colbourn’s “Among the Drumlins”, Connor Wood’s “What Fire Will Be”, and Sean Patrick’s “A Defence of Moby Dick”.) The second group consists of poems in a meditative mode, mostly on explicitly religious themes (Steven Searcy, “Tree-Hymn”, “Giver”, “Spark”, and “Tabernacle”; Jonathan Lovelace, “Advent Invocation”; Sean Patrick, Engineer’s Prayer”; Lancelot Schaubert, “Automobile Fences”, Jacob Riyeff, “On the Maker”, and John C. Mannone, “Confession”.) The third group mostly consists of psalms and psalm-like prayers (John C. Mannone, “A Lost Prayer”, and “Not Only Rainbows”; myself, “Like a Tree Standing Tall [after Psalm 1] and “How many, how many [After Psalm 3]; two more versions of Psalm 1, by David Rowe and Donald T. Williams; D.A. Cooper, “I Raise My Voice”; Sean Patrick, “An Alliterative Psalm”; and Kathryn Ann Hill, “The Lord My Rock [Psalm 92] and “You Are Every Mighty and Faithful [Psalm 89]). Finally, I present two alliterative free verse poems by Jane Beal, “Bright waves from the wide Caribbean Sea” and “The Secret Life”.
For those interested in such things, this issue shows a great deal of formal variety. A few of the poems attempt to imitate Old English alliterative verse closely (e.g., Williams’ “Psalm 1”) or Old Norse ljódahattr and fornyrðislag (Jones, “Song-form”, “Wyrd”, and “No Longer Treading”). Most of the remaining poems imitate the old Germanic meter, though without paying strict attention to Siewers types or certain other technical features. Steven Searcy’s “Giver” carries out what is, in modern English, a technical tour de force – an alliterative poem entirely keyed to a single letter (“Giver”). John C. Mannone provides us with multiple experiments – an alliterative villanelle which is also a cento (“Confession”), and an alliterative poem with a daisy-chain rhyme scheme, reminescent of a Claire sonnet (“A Lost Prayer”). My two Psalm-inspired poems reflect a period when I was experimenting with split alliterative lines, which I combined with rhyming couplets at points of special emphasis.
This issue is well worth reading whether you value lyric, meditation, or devotional. I trust you will find it contains real food for thought.
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