Whereas Galach had been the language of convenience under the Corrinos, Fremen was now the language of God under the Atreides. Moreover, the tastes of the Fremen, who BOW made up the bulk of the audience for the products of art, were different. The Fremen preferred history to Fiction in general, and in particular, preferred the epic to the lyric, the drama to the narrative (many were illiterate), and moral fable to realistic comedy, The literature of Galach had been diffused among many planets, but that of Fremen was concentrated on Arrakis; Galach poetry, casual aad mannered, gave place to Fremen poetry, strictly traditional in both meter and form. And finally, the vigor which Galach poetry drew from its roots on many planets was replaced in Fremen verse by an intense intellection; this last change needs some explanation. The Fremen writers who mi$it have filled their works with their own Dune-bred energies were scattered across a thousand worlds by the Jihad. Many of them died in its progress; many others, whose natural bent might have been artistic, were channeled into military, administrative, or judicial careers. Yet the population of Arrakis was never very large, and tine outflow of the Fremen legions decreased it noticeably. Into this vacuum surged not only a spectrum of fortune hunters but also writers from around the empire, attracted by the wealth and patronage that now only Artakis could offer. The surprising yet logical conclusion of these causes was the fact mat of all the writers who brought luster to Fremen literaaire from 10200 to 10400--the "Golden Age"-not one was Fsemen-bcm. For instance, among the supreme dramatists of the age, Hang al-Harba was born Aitu Cinoli on Yorba; Tonk Shaio was bom on Aefarium IV; al-Mashrab, also an occasional poet, took her Fremen name from a nickname-"the vivid one"-which gradually replaced mat given her on her homework! of Parton, Sorri Cam wold And the situation was much the same with the poets of the era. No sketch, however brief, of the poetry of this time would be complete without mention of Deeziir Astiki (10189-10250), who occupied a singular position among the early Atreidean poets. He began in 10214 as a minor functionary under the regency of Alia, and was alone among the poets of his time in knowing Leto II and Ghanima personally. Astiki felt a genuine affection for the growing twins, beginning with his "Birth Poems," a pair of works celebrating their births. The poem written for Leto4 is provocative in view of that emperor's later reign, but whether Astiki's poem shows a premonition about the pre-bom Leto remains an open question. LETO A child new-bom, testimonial to man, Moves in powers of potency like clouds With no hint yet of future shapes.