Alliterative Revival

The Alliterative Revival is a term adopted by literary historians to refer to the resurgence of poetry using the <a href="/facts/Alliterative_verse/ElXUR9ry">alliterative verse</a> form in <a href="/facts/Middle_English/dj1wHvwd">Middle English</a> between c. 1350 and 1500. Alliterative verse was the traditional verse form of <a href="/facts/Old_English_poetry/sfFJE3Xq">Old English poetry</a>; the last known alliterative poem prior to the Revival was <a href="/facts/Layamon/VWAMLyIe">Layamon</a>'s <a href="/facts/Brut_(Layamon)/lujMERM3">Brut</a>, which dates from around 1190.
Scholarly opinion has been divided on whether the Alliterative Revival represented a conscious revival of an old artistic tradition, or merely signified that despite the tradition continuing in some form between 1200 and 1350, no poems survived in written form. Major works of the Revival include <a href="/facts/William_Langland/FLld5Nqf">William Langland</a>'s <a href="/facts/Piers_Plowman/wgjP3aFx">Piers Plowman</a>, the <a href="/facts/Alliterative_Morte_Arthure/C0vXdw89">Alliterative Morte Arthure</a>, and the works of the <a href="/facts/Gawain_Poet/tpd4Edn3">Gawain Poet</a>: <a href="/facts/Pearl_(poem)/xrEprkmz">Pearl</a>, <a href="/facts/Sir_Gawain_and_the_Green_Knight/4kwM1KFW">Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</a>, <a href="/facts/Cleanness/UIvKGrXk">Cleanness</a>, and <a href="/facts/Patience_(poem)/oyAd6x2T">Patience</a>.

Alliterative Revival open-in-new

Alliterative Revival