Despite the numerous famous examples of «les litanies» in French poetry the manner in which
the structures of this form of worship affect the versification strategies of poems has not
previously been discussed thoroughly. Litanic verse whose origins are as ancient as those of
the litany genre is recognized in works whose poetic diction in whole or in part includes
the distinctive features of the litany such as enumeration parallelism anaphora and
epiphora. The third volume describes the development of litanic verse from troubadour poetry
and Old French religious verse up to World War II. This rich and multifaceted material is
presented in chronological order and in the context of different literary genres.
