Saint Theodulph

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14579b.htm
It took the new invaders of Europe very little time to go from being barbarians to endeavoring to live out the Gospel. We still sing this gentleman's song:http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/g/aglahonr.htm (I believe that names ending in
-ulph were Gothic).
Here is the Latin version:http://romaaeterna.web.infoseek.co.jp/liber1/lu0586.html
Rhyme was a medieval addition to poetry, brought over from the Celts and the Saxons and really created by the monks, who, I suppose, found it easy to rhyme in Latin. In any case, they kept metre. And the new style didn't suffer at all in this:
http://www.franciscan-archive.org/de_celano/opera/diesirae.html
The Dies Irae is not only the credo of the Early Middle Ages, it is a beautiful piece of poetry, exemplifying the fact that rhyme, even an abundance of ryhme, is no bar nor detriment to the inner freedom of the idea.
This hymn by Saint Theodulph is a processional hymn, part of the old, abandoned Church calendar. We either need a new one, or go back to the old, Ah reckon! Our calendar is that we have no calendar, much like our liturgy!
One has to wait to the Reformation hymns of Rinckhart and Luther to read something like this.

Coming up: The Ineluctable Decline of Germany in Poetry and Hymns