SOURCE: Lauritis, Joseph A. “Second Thoughts on Style in Lydgate's Life of Our Lady.” In Essays and Studies in Language and Literature, edited by Herbert H. Petit, pp. 12-23. Pittsburgh: Dequesne University Press, 1964.

In the following essay, Lauritis claims that The Life of Our Lady is a poem less literary than “bardic,” as much of it has the ring of improvised speech rather than composed lyric.

After pursuing with conventional apparatus the study of John Lydgate's use of methods and materials, there remains in the mind of the writer a lingering impression that in the Life of Our Lady¹ we may have a poem less literary than “bardic”. The syntactical “difficulties” somehow have the ring of speech. The speaker generally controls his materials but he seems rather to improvise as he goes along than to compose.

In view of the great volume of his poetic output (almost five...