The Voice of the TrobairitzDuring the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, southern France witnessed first a burgeoning, then a decline in the poetry of women troubadourstrobairitz. These women stood both within and outside the troubadour tradition, so their work is interesting for social and literary historical reasons as well as for its aesthetic merit. Many of their twenty eight surviving poems are love songs in which the trobairitz expresses her desire with a freshness that