Topic 3 (session B) - Patterns, Deviations, Style and Meaning > Extended parallelism: literary examples > Task C

Extended parallelism: literary examples

Task C - The Corpus Christi Carol [text version]

Below is a complete poem, a version (one of many) of a late medieval ballad usually called 'The Falcon' or 'The Corpus Christi Carol'. We have modernised the spellings. After you have familiarised yourselves with it, we will analyse it.

Read the poem carefully two or three times to familiarise yourselves with it.

After you have done this read our initial commentary of the poem.

After reading through our commentary view and answer the questions. (the answers will open in a new window)

We have also provided a sung version of it for you to listen to.

For reasons of space, the refrain is only repeated at the beginning and end of the poem for you. But traditionally it would have been repeated at the end of each stanza, as it is in the sung version of the ballad.

The Corpus Christi Carol

Lully, lulley! Lully, lulley!
The falcon hath borne my make away!

He bare him up, he bare him down,
He bare him into an orchard brown.

In that orchard there was an halle,
That was hanged with purple and pall.

And in that hall there was a bed,
And it was hanged with gold so red.

And in that bed there li'th a knight
His woundes bleeding day and night.

At that bed's foot there li'eth a hound,
Licking the blood as it runs down.

By that bed-side kneeleth a may,
And she weepeth both night and day.

And at that bed's head standeth a stone,
Corpus Christi written thereon.

Lully, lulley! Lully, lulley!
The falcon hath borne my make away!

(Anonymous)

Vocabulary Notes
'make' = mate, love
'pall' = a funeral pall, a sheet hung over a coffin.
'may' = maid, maiden

Initial Commentary

In this poem it appears that the falcon, a bird of prey, carries away a knight, the love of the persona in the poem. The action of the falcon prefigures the death of the knight. At the end of the poem the knight is revealed as being Jesus Christ ('corpus Christi' = 'body of Christ' in Latin). In this sense, the poem is not difficult to understand. But over and above this simple account it has resonances which we need to explore, and which involve a series of patterns of parallelism, and deviations from those parallelisms.

The knight in the poem is portrayed rather like the recumbent statues seen on rich tombs in medieval churches. It is common for the top of such tombs to have a representation of the knight, who is often portrayed as resting his feet on a hound or some other animal. The richest of such tombs sometimes have angels watching over the head of the knight, and the man's wife and/or other family members kneeling in prayer at the side.

Questions

1. There is parallelism in the last line of the initial refrain and the first verse of the ballad. Identify the nature of these parallelisms and explain their effects.

Our Comments

2. In stanza 2, the parallelistic pattern is broken and a new one is set up. Identify the nature of this new parallelistic pattern and how far it continues. What effects can you associate with this pattern?

Our Comments

3. When the knight is introduced the pattern of repetition linked to the fronted prepositional phrases changes again. Explain this new pattern and its effect, and any associated patterns or changes in pattern.

Our Comments

4. Some final changes take place in the last stanza. What are they and what effects do they have?

Our Comments

5. How can we draw all these things together? Any other things to point out?

Our Comments

Please note: - you can see (and hear!) a version which is more faithful to the original language.

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