Editing English poetry (section)

==The earliest English poetry==
{{Main|Old English poetry}}
{{See Also|alliterative verse}}
[[File:Beowulf Cotton MS Vitellius A XV f. 132r.jpg|thumb|right|The first page of [[Beowulf]]]]
The earliest known English poem is a hymn on the creation; [[Bede]] attributes this to [[Cædmon]] ([[floruit|fl.]] 658&ndash;680), who was, according to legend, an illiterate herdsman who produced extemporaneous poetry at a monastery at [[Whitby]]. This is generally taken as marking the beginning of [[Old English poetry|Anglo-Saxon poetry]].{{sfn|Greene|2012|p=}}

Much of the poetry of the period is difficult to date, or even to arrange chronologically; for example, estimates for the date of the great epic ''[[Beowulf]]'' range from A.D. 608 right through to A.D. 1000, and there has never been anything even approaching a consensus.<ref>''See, for example,'' ''Beowulf: a Dual-Language Edition'', Doubleday, New York, NY, 1977; Newton, S., 1993. ''The Origins of Beowulf and the Pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia''. Cambridge.</ref> It is possible to identify certain key moments, however. ''[[Dream of the Rood|The Dream of the Rood]]'' was written before circa A.D. 700, when excerpts were carved in runes on the [[Ruthwell Cross]].<ref>Brendan Cassidy (ed.), ''The Ruthwell Cross'', Princeton University Press (1992).</ref> Some poems on historical events, such as ''[[Battle of Brunanburh|The Battle of Brunanburh]]'' (937) and ''[[The Battle of Maldon]]'' (991), appear to have been composed shortly after the events in question, and can be dated reasonably precisely in consequence.

By and large, however, Anglo-Saxon poetry is categorised by the manuscripts in which it survives, rather than its date of composition. The most important manuscripts are the four great poetical codices of the late 10th and early 11th centuries, known as the [[Cædmon manuscript]], the [[Vercelli Book]], the [[Exeter Book]], and the [[Nowell Codex|Beowulf manuscript]].

While the poetry that has survived is limited in volume, it is wide in breadth. ''Beowulf'' is the only heroic epic to have survived in its entirety, but fragments of others such as [[Waldere]] and the [[Finnesburg Fragment]] show that it was not unique in its time. Other genres include much religious verse, from devotional works to biblical paraphrase; elegies such as ''[[The Wanderer (Old English poem)|The Wanderer]]'', ''[[The Seafarer (poem)|The Seafarer]]'', and ''[[The Ruin]]'' (often taken to be a description of the ruins of [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]]); and numerous proverbs, [[riddle]]s, and [[spell (paranormal)|charm]]s.

With one notable exception ([[The Rhyming Poem|Rhyming Poem]]), Anglo-Saxon poetry depends on [[alliterative verse]] for its structure and any rhyme included is merely [[ornament (music)|ornamental]].