Derek was nice enough to post a chapter of his dissertation discussing the important influence Paul the Deacon had on the medieval church in the West.
I found out he was a poet and was curious what he wrote. I have mixed feelings on Carolingian poetry. I like their hymnody, e.g. a solis ortus cardine , but I found Alcuin rather bizarre. I think I like Paul the Deacon.
For those who don't read Latin, here is a very little taste: (I don't believe in dry or literal translations for poetry)
From his verses to Peter the Grammarian
"I am compared to Homer, Horace, and Vergil/ I am more a rhetorician or a hack philosopher/ But you, O man of Verona rate with Tibullus."
"I don't know even a little Greek, forget Hebrew/ Three or four on the faculty have taught me a few words/ The little I've gleaned is all I bring to the threshing floor."
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