Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

Lonesome Words

The Vocal Poetics of the Old English Lament and the African-American Blues Song

  • Book
  • © 2006

Overview

Authors:
  1. M. G. McGeachy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Part of the book series: The New Middle Ages (TNMA)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction: Don’t the World Seem Lonely…

    • M. G. McGeachy
    Pages 1-7

  3. Captivated Performance

    • M. G. McGeachy
    Pages 9-25

  4. Recording the Formula

    • M. G. McGeachy
    Pages 27-60

  5. Blues and Trouble…Sorg Ond Slæp [Sorrow and Sleep]

    • M. G. McGeachy
    Pages 61-98

  6. Anthologizing Sorrow

    • M. G. McGeachy
    Pages 99-115

  7. Conclusion: Strange Yet Familiar

    • M. G. McGeachy
    Pages 117-120

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 121-182
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

The tenth-century Old English lament and twentieth-century blues song each speak the language of a distinct poetic tradition, yet the voices are remarkably similar in their emotive expression of loneliness. This innovative study juxtaposes the texts of each corpus to explore the features that characterize their vocal poetics

Reviews

'Lonesome Words makes a strong contribution to comparative poetics in the typological rather than the genetic sense. McGeachy successfully explores a hierarchy of comparisons from verbal formulæ to social and historical contexts for production in the Old English lament and the African-American blues song. In both corpora she examines themes of wandering, of exile and imprisonment, and of a lost but happier past, and the conclusions she draws from these comparisons are salient and comprehensive.' John Lewis, Associate Professor of English, Southern Methodist University

About the author

MARGARET G. MCGEACHY is Assistant Professor of English at D'Youville College in New York, USA.

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation