This summary shows everything you need to know from the Anglo-Saxon period to the victorian age. Furthermore, the important poems of the periods have been highlighted and an analysis is included. There are also translations from old English to new English so that the text is easier to understand.
Alliteration: The same sound repeated at the beginning of words near to one
another, which creates a sound effect, e.g. “The lone and level sands stretch far
away”
Ballad: A poem written in short regular stanzas, which often tells a story of tragedy
or heroism. Features are dialogue, repetition
Courtly love poetry: Conventional elements in this kind of poetry are the humble,
unhappy lover, the superior, distant lady and the treatment of love as a sort of
pseudo-religion. The man submits to the lady without whose love he will surely
die.
Metaphor: Describing a person or object by referring to something that is
considered to have similar characteristics e.g. “the mind is an ocean”(extended
metaphor: the comparison is carried on for some time)
Personification: An abstract idea or object is given human qualities. e.g. The sun is
smiling.
Simile: A comparison in which one thing is said to be ‘like’ or ‘as’ another. e.g.”my
mistress eyes are nothing like the sun
Onomatopoeia: Words which when spoken aloud have the same sound as the noise
they describe, crack, boom, which add to the atmospere, e.g.: “… the stuttering
rifles rapid rattle…”, “silence shuffled forward…”
Rhyme scheme: The pattern made by the rhymes at the line endings. Mark out a
rhyme scheme by giving different letters to each different rhyme
Iambic pentameter: The term describes the particular rhythm that the words
establish in each line. That rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called
"feet". An "iambic" foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
The word "pentameter" indicates that a line has five of these "feet". So there are
ten syllables in each line.
Blank verse:Unrhymed ten-syllable iambic lines, as used by Shakespeare in his
plays.
Run-on line: A sentence doesn’t stop at the end of the line, but goes on in the next,
e.g.: “I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs
of stone Stand in the desert ........... ”
Stanza: A verse, a group of lines
Syllable: A word or part of a word, e.g beau- ti-ful- ly
,Sonnet: A form often used for love poems. It is always fourteen lines long with a
regular rhyme scheme. English sonnet: 4-4-4-2 (3 quatrains, 1 couplet) abab cdcd
efef gg Italian sonnet: 4-4-3-3 ( 1 octave, 1 sestet) abba abba cde cde)
Quatrain: A stanza of four lines, usually with a regular rhyme scheme. Two
quatrains make an octave
Tercet: A stanza of three lines, usually with a regular rhyme scheme. Two tercets
make a sestet
Couplet: A pair of consecutive lines which rhyme with one another (almost always
the last two lines of the Shakespearian sonnet)
Volta: Turn in a sonnet, usually between lines 8-9. A turn or transition in a
sonnet’s main argument, theme or tone.
The Anglo-Saxon Period (700-1100)
- England was conquered in the 5th century by 3 Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons
and Jutes)
-These tribes brought their own historical and literary backgrounds with them.
- This could be seen in the renowned Anglo-Saxon poem: ‘Beowulf’, which was in
the same manuscript as the 349-line fragment ‘Judith’. This was an adaption of
the biblical book of Judith
- Anglo-Saxon poetry was oral literature and meant to be recited by memory. To
make memorizing easier, they made good use of alliteration.
- Judith is an exemplar woman who is honest, brave, holy and wise. Judith murders
the typical bad guy in the story: Holofernes. He takes away all her convictions of
wrongdoing because he is relatively way worse. Judith becomes a hero.
● Judith stresses heroism, trappings of warfare, complex position of a female
hero and god’s deliverance of the justice against their enemies.
● It was one of the first representations of a female hero
● The general Holofernes orders that Judith be brought to his bed. When
Judith is brought there ,she drunkens him until he’s asleep and then chops
his head off with a sword.
-Judith and Beowuld together are: ‘The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’, started towards
900 by King Alfred, a record of the country’s history kept for 2,5 centuries.
The Middle English Period (1100-1500)
-The conquest of England by a Norman-French king, William the Conqueror
changed the Anglo-Saxon language.
● French became the language for the upper class for almost three centuries.
, ● English was for lower classes
-The most important literature was written in French. English literature became
based on end-rhyme instead of the Anglo-Saxon system of alliterative verse.
-The tragic Anglo-Saxon Epic was replaced by the French Romances which were
energetic and graceful.
-Geofrey Chaucer was one of the first poets to write English poetry that would be
understandable for everyone. Many were still writing in French.
-Chaucer’s original plan for ‘The Canterbury Tales’ was for each character to tell 2
tells on the way to Canterbury and 2 on the way back. Except it ends after 24 tales
instead of 120 because he 1) died before he could finish it or 2) alternated the text
after writing it.
-In the frame-told story, a group of pilgrims decide to do a story-telling contest as
they travel from London to Canterbury. Chaucer managed to describe each of the
30 pilgrims with humour and realism.
-A squire was a young man who prepared to become a knight. The squire in the
story is both a lover and a soldier whose father is only concerned about warfare.
-After Chauser’s death, English literature soon became less relevant. 15th century
produced some good folk ballads such as ‘Sir Patrick Spens’ and ‘Lord Randall’
-the only worthwhile prose from the 15th century was ‘Morte D’Arthur’ by Thomas
Malory. It contains a number of Arthurian romances.(King Arthur was a legendary
British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of
Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.)
-Medieval society was dominated by the church which meant that earthly life was
really just a journey to heaven. This made people see themselves as part of a herd
and not as an individual. This caused so many medieval literary works to be
anonymous.
-The development of drama was caused by the liturgical plays from church. These
are plays where parts of the Bible were acted out. Later this happened in the form
of miracle plays
(Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux
with accompanying antiphonal song).
-A third form of drama is the so-called Morality in which a person’s good or bad
qualities are represented as people
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