Alysoun

[10][11] The reading public was first made aware of "Alysoun" in 1774, when Thomas Warton included an extract from it in the first volume of The History of English Poetry (1774).

It was published in full by Joseph Ritson in his Ancient Songs (1790, recte 1792), and then in George Ellis's Specimens of the Early English Poets (2nd edition, 1801).

[14][15] It may actually be the lyric of a song, but this cannot be proved since no music for it survives;[16] at any rate, with the poem's rhythmic and melodic qualities it is eminently singable.

[1][17] The poem's images are those of the ordinary speech of the people,[18] and its language is very largely of Anglo-Saxon rather than Romance derivation, though the words baundoun and bounte stand out as exceptions.

[23] The extremes of joy and sorrow produced in the poet by his love for this young lady are presented in close juxtaposition, or dialogue, making their relationship a more interesting and dynamic one than is usual in Middle English lyrics.

[27] The images of springtime, the singing of birds, the ardent lover's thoughts of his beloved, the list of her bodily charms, the poet's pleas for mercy, his declaration that he is in thrall to her, will die without her, cannot sleep for love of her, yet knows that he is blessed by heaven – all this appears in countless other lyrics of the time, written in French, Occitan, and Italian.