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The Church Fathers · c. 658–680
Caedmon's Hymn
Caedmon · 7th century
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What it is
Nine lines in praise of the creator, said by Bede to have been given in a dream to an illiterate cowherd at Whitby who then became a poet.
Why it lasted
The oldest surviving poem in English, and the beginning of Christian vernacular verse in the Germanic world.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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