| The remaining poems of our period in the old alliterative metre are of a didactic character. Among them may be mentioned the Mengologium or poetical calendar, which is prefixed to a version of the Chronicle. 52 It is an interesting metrical survey of the progress of the year, with special mention of the saints’ days observed by the church, preserving some of the Old English names of the months, such as Weodmona[char] (August), Winterfylle[char] (October) and Blotmona[char] (November), and retaining traces of heathen times, though the whole is Christian in basis. Its value, as poetry, depends on the tender feeling for nature shown in such passages as those which describe the coming of May, tranquil and gentle, with blossoming woods and flowers, or winter, which cuts off the harvest with the sword of rime and snow, when all is fettered with frost by the hest of the Creator, so that men may no longer haunt the green meadows or the flowery fields. |
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