FOLK POETRY. — Interest in folk poetry revealed itself in England as early as the first decades of the 18th century, and the most significant work of this initial turn of taste toward the elementary and traditional forms of poetry may be considered Percy’s *Reliques of Ancient English Poetry* (1765). But it was due to German Romanticism, and especially to J. G. Herder, Goethe, Bürger, and J. Grimm, that folk poetry attained its 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 poetry from the various peoples of Europe. In opposition to classicism and to literature, bound to the models and canons of rhetoric, folk poetry 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 life: it was also recognized as a genuine interpretation of national character and spirit. Thus arose the Romantic myth of folk poetry, whose origin was conceived as collective and mysterious. These conceptions are still reflected in Ulland’s *Geschichte der altdeutschen Poesie* (1830). In Italy, the appeal to folk poetry and its values is already found in Berchet’s *Lettera semiseria* (1816), which also contributed to the knowledge of folk poetry through the translation of *Vecchie romanze spagnole* (1835). Among us, however, the nebulous myth of collective tradition never took hold, and the idea of a single poet as the author of folk poetry was always clear. Nevertheless, the Romantic movement was fruitful in that it led to the collection and study of the folk songs of the various European nations, and in particular of those lacking an ancient tradition of art poetry. This Romantic phase in Italy is represented especially by Tommaseo, with his great collection *Canti popolari toscani, corsi, illirici, greci*, 4 vols., Venice 1841–42.
The refinement of philology during the 19th century helped to place the study of folk poetry on solid foundations, especially with regard to the critical edition of songs, carried out by taking into account the contribution of numerous and varied versions of the same song to establish its fortune and area of diffusion. Examples include F. J. Child’s *The English and Scottish Popular Ballads* in 10 vols. (Boston 1882–98) and, in Italy, Costanzo Nigra’s *Canti popolari piemontesi* (Turin 1888). But toward the end of the last century and in the first decades of the present one, the concept of folk poetry underwent a critical revision that led to distinctly negative conclusions. As a representative of this anti-Romantic trend, one may cite Bédier, who expressed himself thus in 1925: *“La poésie populaire est un mythe: le peuple n'a jamais rien créé.”* In short, what we call folk poetry is, according to Bédier, nothing other than decadent learned poetry, descended among the lower classes and more or less crudely assimilated by them. Analogous conclusions were reached by John Meier’s studies on German folk song. Intense critical work has been carried out in the last thirty years to deepen and clarify the concept of folk poetry, and it has involved eminent philologists, philosophers of art, historians of literature, and folklorists. The main conclusions and 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 mere passivity, nor as the only source. A reverse process is also recognized, an upward movement of poetic-musical forms and creations that the learned classes have, in certain periods, drawn from the popular classes.
Nevertheless, as folk poetry is recognized that which has become the expressive patrimony of a community. Considered in its aesthetic character, folk poetry is that which, according to Croce’s definition, *“esprime sentimenti semplici in corrispondenti semplici forme.”* It is this simplicity that favors its selection and assimilation by the people and characterizes its subsequent innumerable modifications. Distinctive traits of folk poetry are also its habitual conjunction with music (and often with dance) and its constant practical function, inasmuch as it is always tied to the various moments and aspects of the life of the lower classes.
It should also be noted that in recent decades the study of folk poetry has made considerable progress with regard to research and publication methods, with refined philological criteria for folk songs. A notable example is offered by the “Raccolta Barbi,” preserved at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, of which a sample has already appeared, by Vittorio Santini, under the title *Cinque canti dalla Raccolta Barbi* (in *Annali della Scuola Norm. Sup. di Pisa, Sez. Lettere, Storia e Filosofia*, 2nd series, fasc. II–III, 1938).
Folk poetry assumes different forms in different countries, which, however, can be traced back to several main types. Among the most important are: 1) the lyric-monostrophic song, which serves especially to express love or its opposite, as well as jest and satire. In Italy the forms are the *strambotto* and the *stornello*; in Spain the *copla* and the *villancico*; in Germanic countries the *Schnaderhüpfel*; in Norway the *stev*; in Romania the *doine*; in the Baltic states the *dainos*; etc.; 2) the epic-lyric song, which briefly unfolds episodes of adventure, war, and love, often with a passionate and tragic character. In many European countries, the epic-lyric song is known as the ballad, evidently because, at least originally, it was united with dance. Its antiquity, wide diffusion, its function of exalting martial valor and patriotic love, and its complex relations with art literature make it one of the most important manifestations of folk poetry. Without dwelling on other forms of song (such as iterative songs, poetry of family love, from lullabies to funeral laments, etc.), it is worth focusing on that part of folk poetry which, for its highest spiritual and aesthetic values, occupies a foremost place even in comparison with art poetry: religious folk poetry. It should first be noted that it is always closely tied to the life of the people, both in the course of the day (with 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 Day, and then in pilgrimages and patronal festivals. In many regions, the principal agricultural tasks, such as harvesting, threshing, and the gathering of olives or hazelnuts, are not carried out without particular religious songs.
Folk religious poetry can be grouped into two broad categories: 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, the Virgin Mary, and all the saints most beloved by the people are evoked in an atmosphere of pure poetry and intense faith. With regard to Italy, the narrative religious folk songs can in turn be subdivided into three groups according to their different origin, meter, and style.
The orations, short epic poems in hendecasyllables with a particular assonantal rhyme, are most intensely diffused in central Italy, which may have been their original centre, but they occupy a vast area stretching from the Alps to Sicily. The oldest ones, such as a beautiful one on the Passion, and others on St Anthony Abbot, St Julian, St Gregory, St Lawrence, certainly date back to the early centuries of our literature and are linked with Julian poetry.
2) Sicilian stories in ottava rima, which mainly develop miraculous themes and other moralising episodes; they are not very old (from the 16th century to our own time) and are modelled on the examples provided by Tuscan singers of the Trecento (cf. the entry CAN-TARI).
3) Epic-lyric sacred songs, not numerous and diffused only in northern Italy and other Romance territories. Among the minor forms, noteworthy for their poetic value are the lyric-narrative “songs” almost always inspired by episodes in the life of the Child Jesus and the Madonna. There is also a vast production of religious popular poetry in the Romance world, especially in Spain, where sacred legends often adopt the metre typical of the Spanish epic-lyric song (romance).
A genre that has been very successful in French-speaking territories is constituted by the noëls, Christmas songs of which a rich production is known, often deriving from a fairly elevated cultural climate.