In every instance, poetry comes before prose. It seems that man sings before he speaks. But there are other very important reasons for this. A verse, once composed, serves as a model. It is repeated over and over again, and then we have a poem. Prose, on the other hand, is much more complex, and requires a greater effort. Moreover, we must not forget the mnemonic value of verse. Thus, in India, the codices are written in verse. I assume they must have some poetic value; this is not why they were written in verse, but rather because in that form it was easier to remember them. – pg. 4, Professor Borges: A course on English Literature

In our day, we have poets like George or Pound, who do not want their poems to be read consecutively – difficult as this is to honor in our era – but rather for the reader to have patience and to read them as different facets of one poetic object. Apparently the ability to do this, which we have not lost or almost lost, was very common during the Middle Ages. Readers or listeners felt they could interpret a text in different ways. And jumping ahead now to what will come much later, we can say that Chesterton’s detective stories are written to be read as fantasy stories, but also as parables. And this is, in fact, what is going on in the seafarer’s elegy. At the end of the elegy, the poem is strictly, explicitly, symbolic. And this clearly did not present any difficulty in the ninth century. We must not assume, then, that we are necessarily more complex than the men of the Middle Ages, who were men well versed in theology and theological subtleties. We have surely gained a lot, but it is also possible that we have lost something. – pg. 51, Professor Borges: A course on English Literature