Textual Lyricism in Lydgate's "Fifteen Joys and Sorrows of Mary."

Author / Editor
Wellesley, Mary.

Title
Textual Lyricism in Lydgate's "Fifteen Joys and Sorrows of Mary."

Published
Julia Boffey and Christiania Whitehead, eds. Middle English Lyrics: New Readings of Short Poems (Cambridge: Brewer, 2018), pp. 122-38.

Description
Analyzes the form and presentation of John Lydgate’'s "Fifteen Joys and Sorrows of Mary," reading it as a bridge between the experiences of poetry and devotion, i.e., for the ways it "relishes the devotional and imaginative possibilities offered by the act of reading words on a page." Includes discussion of the poem's many allusions to Chaucer and his work and of how Lydgate 'delicately attempts to outstrip his 'maister Chaucer,' by turning to . . . purely devotional ends."

Alternative Title
Middle English Lyrics: New Readings of Short Poems

Chaucer Subjects
Chaucer's Influence and Later Allusion