Song of Roland’s Oral Tradition

Song of Roland is an epic poem
About a noble warrior a knight so bold
291 stanzas and 4002 verses
In times of old, this tale was told

Roland was Duke of the Marches of Brittany
A nephew of Charlemagne in days of old
He was ambushed and killed at Roncevaux pass
A knight so bold, his tale was told

For more than three hundred years
In tradition the story was orally told
Before Turoldus possibly wrote down
This tale of old, as orally told

Proclaimed the oldest major work of
French literature for all to behold
La Chanson de Roland lives on
This tale still told, about times of old

——

Image Credit: Statue of Roland, Jürgen Howaldt, CC BY-SA 2.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons with modifications by Ron Rowland

Linked to dVerse Poets Pub — Poetics: Oral Poetry, where Ingrid is hosting and has challenged us “to try something a little different. Perhaps you are used to composing in this way; perhaps you’ve never done it before. Either way, here are the steps I want you to take:

1. Begin to compose a poem without putting pen to paper: you can say the words in your head, or repeat them out loud. Record them, if you wish, as an aid to memory. Try to complete the poem as far as possible without writing it down. Think about the devices discussed above: regular rhythms, repeated phrases or ‘motifs’, alliteration and rhyme schemes – anything to aid the memory and help the words to flow. Alternatively, why not compose a stream-of-consciousness poem orally, recording the words as they come to you?
2. There are no strict rules here, but do try to compose at least some of the poem without writing it down immediately, perhaps stanza by stanza. Once you have written it down, read it aloud to yourself, and think about any improvements you could make: a kind of oral editing process.
3. Once you have composed your poem, you can do one (or both) of the following:
   – Make an audio/video recording of your poem and post it to your blog.
   – Transcribe your poem, so we can read the finished version

Reference: The Song of Roland

More poems with audio.