Song of Roland The Song of Roland is a poem written in the eleventh century. Although it is for light reading, it is also fun to read as it is full of actions with clear cut facets of the good and the bad, with a religious spin to it (Ragnar). From a different level, the literature also expresses the ideas of honor, revenge and betrayal. One of the techniques that are used in the poem is that of rhyming. The end words of the poem in the approximately fourteen lines are structured in such a way that they have the element of assonance.