ABSTRACT
Imagery and metaphor in the poem are, further, by no means confined to this “light” complex. Words referring to “treasure” and “rewards” occur frequently and are characteristically divided into the “transitory” and “eternal” varieties. Far from having a simple structure, then, The Fates of the Apostles appears to have been composed on several skillfully interwoven structural principles. Surely it can now be granted that recent studies have led scholars to a point where they can realize that this is not only an illuminating poem for students of the period, who may indeed be well advised to consider what it tells them about the assumptions and outlook of old English poetry. Nevertheless, a structure based on the divisions indicated has some theoretical attractions and is at least as defensible as one which depends entirely on so debatable a verbal signal as the repetition of one among the many insistently repeated words in this mannered, formal poem.
