FOLK POETRY. - Interest in f. p. revealed itself in England as early as the first decades of the 18th century, and the most significant work of this first turning of taste toward the elementary and traditional forms of poetry may be considered Percy's collection, Reliques of ancient English Poetry (1765). But it is to German Romanticism, and especially to J. G. Herder, to Goethe, to Bürger, to J. Grimm, that f. p. owes its rise to the highest aesthetic, political and moral values.
Herder's collection Volkslieder or Stimmen der Völker in Liedern ("Voices of the Peoples in Songs," 1st ed., 1778) offered examples of the poetry of the various peoples of Europe. In opposition to classicism and to a literature bound to models and to the canons of rhetoric, f. p. was exalted as the only poetry capable of expressing with immediacy and spontaneity the movements of the soul and the vision of the world and of life: it was also recognized as a genuine interpreter of national character and soul. Thus was born the Romantic myth of f. p., whose origin was thought to be collective and mysterious. Such conceptions are still reflected in Uhland's Geschichte der altdeutschen Poesie (1830). In Italy, the appeal to f. p. and its values appears already in the Lettera semiseria di Grisostomo (1816) of Berchet, who also contributed to the knowledge of f. p. with his translation of the Vecchie romanze spagnole (1835). In our country, however, the nebulous myth of collective creation never took hold, and the idea of a single poet as the author of f. p. was always clearly held. In any case, the Romantic current was fruitful in that it led to the collection and study of the popular songs of the various European nations, and in particular of those that did not possess an ancient tradition of art poetry. This Romantic phase in Italy is represented especially by Tommaseo, with his great collection of Canti popolari toscani, corsi, illirici, greci, 4 vols., Venice 1841-42.
The perfecting of philology in the course of the 19th century helped to place the study of f. p. on solid foundations, especially as regards the critical edition of the songs, carried out by means of the contribution of numerous and varied variants of one and the same song in order to establish its fortune and its area of diffusion. One may cite, for example, F. J. Child's collection, The English and Scottish popular ballads in 10 vols. (Boston 1882-98) and, in our country, the Canti popolari piemontesi of Costantino Nigra (Turin 1888). But toward the end of the last century and in the first decades of the 20th century the concept of f. p. was subjected to a critical revision that arrived at clearly negative conclusions. As a representative of this anti-Romantic current one may cite Bédier, who expressed himself thus (1923): «La poésie populaire est un mythe: le peuple n'a jamais rien créé». In short, what we call f. p. is nothing other, says Bédier, than learned poetry in decay, descended among the humble classes and more or less crudely assimilated by them. To analogous conclusions came John Meier's studies on the German folk song. The critical work carried out in these last thirty years to deepen and clarify the concept of f. p. has been most intense, and distinguished philologists, philosophers of art, literary historians and folklorists have taken part in it. The principal conclusions and the most recent views may be briefly summarized as follows. The descent of learned poetry among the people is not denied, but its assimilation is not conceived as a mere passivity, nor as the only source. An inverse process is also recognized, an ascending movement of poetic-musical forms and creations that the cultivated classes have, in certain periods, drawn from the popular classes.
In any case, as f. p. one recognizes that which has become the expressive patrimony of a collectivity. Considered then in its aesthetic character, f. p. is that which, according to Croce's definition, «expresses simple sentiments in correspondingly simple forms». It is this simplicity that favors its selection and assimilation on the part of the people and characterizes its subsequent innumerable modifications. Distinctive traits of f. p. are also its habitual conjunction with music (and often also with dance) and its constant practical function, inasmuch as it is always linked to the various moments and aspects of the life of the humble classes.
One should also recall the notable progress that in these last decades the study of f. p. has made as regards the method of research and of publication, with perfected philological criteria, of popular songs. A distinguished example is offered by the "Raccolta Barbi" preserved at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, of which a sample has already appeared, due to Vittorio Santoli, under the title Cinque canti dalla Raccolta Barbi (in Annali della Scuola Nor. Sup. di Pisa, Sez. Lettere, Storia e Filosofia, 2nd series, fasc. II-III, 1938).
F. p. assumes in different countries different forms that can nevertheless be traced back to a few principal types. One recalls, among the most important: 1) the lyric-monostrophic song, which serves especially to express love or the opposite sentiment and also jest and satire. In Italy the forms are the strambotto and the stornello, in Spain the copla and the villancico, in the Germanic countries the Schnaderhüpfl, in Norway the ster, in Romania the doine, in the Baltic states the dainos, etc.; 2) the epic-lyric song, which develops, in rapid strokes, episodes of adventure, of war, of love, often with a passionate and tragic character. In many countries of Europe, the epic-lyric song is known by the name of ballad, evidently because, at least originally, it was united with the dance. Its antiquity, its wide diffusion, its function of exalting warlike valor and love of country, its complex relations with art literature make it one of the most important manifestations of f. p. Leaving aside other forms of songs (such as iterative songs, the poetry of family love, from lullabies to funeral "laments," etc.) it is worthwhile to dwell upon that part of f. p. which for its very high spiritual and aesthetic values occupies a place of first rank, even in comparison with art poetry: religious f. p. One should observe first of all that it is always closely joined with the life of the people, both in the course of the day (with special brief prayers for morning, noon and evening) and in the course of the year, on the occasion of the principal feasts, from Christmas to Easter to St. John's, and then in pilgrimages and patronal feasts. In many regions the principal works of the fields, such as the harvest, the threshing of grain, the gathering of olives, or of hazelnuts, are not carried out without particular religious songs.
All religious f. p. may be gathered into two great groups: 1) narrative songs inspired by the Gospels or by hagiographic or moralizing legends; 2) lyric songs, which include prayers and invocations. By far the most important is the first group, in which the figures of Christ, of the Madonna and of all the saints dearest to the people are evoked in an atmosphere of genuine poetry and intense faith. As regards Italy, the narrative religious popular songs may in turn be subdivided into three groups according to their different origin, meter and style.
1) The orazioni (prayers), short poems in hendecasyllables of an epic character, rhymed or assonanced in a particular manner; they are found most densely widespread in central Italy, which was perhaps their place of origin, but they occupy a vast area extending from the Alps to Sicily: the oldest, such as a very beautiful one on the Passion, and others on St. Anthony Abbot, St. Julian, St. Gregory, St. Lawrence, certainly go back to the first centuries of our literature and are linked to the poetry of the jongleurs; 2) the storie siciliane (Sicilian stories) in ottava rima, which chiefly develop motifs of miracles and other episodes with a moralizing purpose; they are not very ancient (from the 16th century to the present) and are fashioned on the models offered by the Tuscan cantari of the 14th century (v. the entry CANTARI); 3) epic-lyric songs of sacred subject, not numerous and diffused only in northern Italy and in other Romance territories. Among the minor forms, noteworthy for their poetic value are the lyric-narrative "canzoni," almost always inspired by episodes from the life of the Child Jesus and of the Madonna. The production of religious p. p. in the Romance world is also ample, and especially in Spain, where sacred legends often assume the metric typical of the Spanish epic-lyric song (romance).
A genre that has been very successful in French-speaking territories consists of the noëll, Christmas songs of which a rich production is known, often descending from a fairly elevated cultural climate.