Old English does not appear to have recognized a genre of prose at all, contends Beechy (English, U. of North Florida), and all important documents were rendered in an artificed literary register not qualitatively distinct from what we would recognize as poetry. Therefore, meaning is encoded poetically, and modern scholars overlook that meaning when they exclude texts from poetic considerations because of their assumptions about poetry and prose. She demonstrates in Alfred's prose Boethius and the poetics of Anglo-Saxon exposition; Old English poetics and the vernacular homily Godspel; poetics and the word in Old English law, charm, and riddle; and extraordinary poetics in traditional verse. The new way to read old texts could alter the study of Old English literature in significant ways, and might eventually spread to other bodies of literature. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)