| Ubi Sunt |
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''Ubi Sunt'' is a phrase that begins several Latin Medieval Poems . It refers to the tone of the poem, and can even be used to indicate the tone of another work, such as Beowulf . Sometimes considered to be a nostalgic longing for the Clichéd "good old days", the ubi sunt motif is actually a meditation on mortality and life's transience. The medieval French poet, Francois Villon , famously echoes the sentiment in the '' Ballade Des Dames Du Temps Jadis '' (Ballad of the Ladies of Times Past) with his question "Ou sont les nieges d'antan?" or "Where are the snows of yesteryear?" A general feeling of ''Ubi Sunt'' radiates from the text of Beowulf. The Anglo-Saxons , at the point in their cultural evolution in which Beowulf was written, experienced an inescapable feeling of doom, symptomatic of ''Ubi Sunt'' yearning. Other prominent ''Ubi Sunt'' Anglo-Saxon poems are '' The Wanderer '', '' The Ruin '', and '' The Seafarer '' (all part of a collection called The Exeter Book , the largest surviving collection of Old English literature). ''The Wanderer'' most exemplifies ''Ubi sunt'' poetry in its use of erotema (the rhetorical question): "Where has the horse gone? Where the young warrior? Where is the giver of treasure? What has become of the feasting seats? Where are the joys of the hall?" ''The Wanderer'' is considered to be an elegiac poem. SEE ALSO |
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