Ralph Vaughan Williams
Sep 4, 2018 · 6 min read

The art of making poems is not exclusively a skill of the literate: it occurs orally in pre-literate societies, or in societies with mostly illiterate members. Some of the oral poetry achieves a high level of sophistication, as in the epics of Homer or the works of the Welsh bards. In both cases authorship is either traditionally ascribed or actually identified. But most such poetry is as anonymous as the cave-art of Lascaux. It may be of…

