...manuscripts in which Old English poems are found ? 8. Who is the author of Sermo Lupi ad Anglos ? 9. Who is the author of Lives of the Saints ? 10. Name two Anglo Saxon Christian poets ? 11. Name the 'earliest extant' Anglo-Saxon poem ? 12. When was Beowulf written ? 13. Mention one Christian element in Beowulf ? 14. Refer to one Pagan element in Beowulf ? 15. What is the name of the pleasure hall in Beowulf ? 16. What is the name of Hrothgar's wife ?(the queen) 17. Name the sword of Beowulf with which he killed Grendel ? 18. Which Anglo-Saxon poem records the fight between the English and Danes ? 19. When did the Battle of Maldon take place ? 20. Who is the author of Death Song ? 21. Who is the author of the poem Brut ? how many lines are there in this poem ? 22. Name two battles referred to in the Anglo-Saxon poems ? 23. What is the name of the monster Beowulf killed ? 24. What is the name of Beowulf's father ? 25. What is the name of the king Beowulf helped ? 26. Name two Anglo-Saxon Elegies ? 27. Name the Anglo-Saxon poem written in dream vision ? 28. Who is the author of Beowulf ? 29. When was Thomas Becket murdered ? 30. Name a middle English poem written in the form of debate between two birds ? 31. Name two historian of the Middle English period ? 32. Who is the writer of Historia Regum Britanniac ? 33. Name the earliest poem of the medieval romance tradition ? 34. Name four middle English alliterative poems ? 35. Give the name of...
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...Geoffrey Chaucer’s collection of stories titled The Canterbury Tales and Dante Alighieri’s three-part poem The Divine Comedy have certain similarities and some differences that often have a religious theme. One of the most obvious comparisons between the two is that both authors wrote about significant journeys. While Dante wrote about traveling through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, Chaucer wrote about a group of people occupying their time while they traveled. The two authors had contrasting writing styles when discussing those journeys; Chaucer’s was more light-hearted and sometimes even risqué, while Dante’s was more consistently solemn and meticulous. Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales, and Dante, author of The Divine Comedy, had some...
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...the Anglo-Saxon era in his work. After the publication of his novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, he published another novel named, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. His poem, “Jabberwocky,” is a poem from the novel, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (Delahoyde). This poem is still known to be one of his famous poems. The poem is about a father who is tells his son to be beware of a monster named “Jabberwocky” that wanders around in the woods. In the poem, Carroll mentions several dissimilar and unusual creatures that do not exist in the real world. Carroll’s style of writing is very unusual in this piece of work and it only influences the readers to laugh at the definitions of the words. In his mind boggling poem, “Jabberwocky,” Lewis Carroll uses unusual diction to mock the Anglo-Saxon heroic tradition. After the father tells his son of the monster that lives in the woods, the son goes on a search for this monster with the purpose of killing it. Upon succeeding and returning back home, his father jumps from joy and then, they both celebrate together. The storyline of this poem is very similar to the classic heroic tale of Beowulf. Both pieces of work mention a hero who went to war with a monster and came out being successful. Both poems also start off with the classic ‘once upon a time’ setting which portrays a fantasy theme. Carroll...
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...the fight between Troy and the Achaeans. Throughout the years, there have been numerous representations about this grand tale, from a beautiful amphora portraying Achilles and Ajax playing a board game, created around 500 B.C. (Arts) and the epic poem, Homer’s Iliad describes in great details the last few weeks of the war, written in 800 B.C. A more modern take on the war is the famous movie Troy with actors Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom, released in 2004. Here we have three different mediums, an amphora, a long poem and a modern film, yet they all tell the tragic bloody tale of the Trojan War. I will discuss the overall theme that these three pieces share,...
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...“Anthology of American Literature,” George McMichael and James Leonard included a literary criticism from Edgar Poe in “Twice-Told Tales” written by Hawthorne. In his review, Edgar Allan Poe set the rules of short stories. Also, the authors included Poe’ theory of poetry in “The Poetic Principle" and "The Philosophy of Composition" which contained the unified core and basis of Poe's critical theories and these two essays alone suffice to give one a full understanding of Poe's critical views. Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be America's first significant literary critic or, at least, the first major writer in America to write seriously about criticism, about the theory of composition, and about the principles of creative art. He was also the first to set down consistent set of principles about what he thought was acceptable in art and what should be essentially rejected in art. Poe's major theories can be found in the many reviews he wrote analyzing the writings of other authors; in this genre, his most famous review is entitled "Twice-Told Tales," a review of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories. Among Poe's greatnesses was his ability as an editor to recognize great literature and to dismiss insignificant works. Poe was the first major, or influential, writer to recognize the genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne. In his review of Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales, Poe says that "Mr. Hawthorne is scarcely recognized by the press or by the public . . . yet . . . he evinces extraordinary genius...
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...The Themes of Madness and of Love and Hate in Poe’s “Tell Tale Heart” and Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover” In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “Tell Tale Heart” and in Robert Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover,” both unnamed narrators commit murder and provide the audience with a seemingly unjustifiable reason as to why they murder their loved ones. In “Tell Tale Heart” and in “Porphyria’s Lover,” both narrators attempt to pose to the audience that they are not insane and effectively accomplish this through their tone and explicit narration. Two of the recurring themes within both Poe’s short story and Browning’s poem are madness and the tension between love and hate. The themes are reinforced through calm tone and passive tone and through the characterization of the narrators. In Poe’s “Tell Tale Heart,” the narrator opens up the short story denying the fact that he is insane and defends his statement by confessing to killing an old man in a very calculated and precise manner with the simple motivation being his fear of the old man’s “eye of a vulture.” The narrator goes through with his plan of murdering the old man and hides the body only to be engulfed by a feeling of guilt which leads him to confessing his act to the police. Throughout the short story, the narrator continues to tell the audience that he is not insane due to his “sharpened … senses” and his “calm” way of telling the whole story, yet it is his tale of murder that contradicts the very claim that he attempts to...
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...Romantic poet Edgar Allan Poe is widely known for his terrifying and mysterious novels and poems. Born on January 19, 1809, Poe soon became a brilliant writer. His tales produced the modern detective story and many of his works, including “The Tell-Tale Heart”, became literary classics. "The Raven," which Poe released in 1845, is considered among the most popular poems in American literature. Edgar Allan Poe left a large imprint on the period of romanticism and inspired musicians as well as writers across the country. Poe's unique short stories and poems sparked imagination and interest in readers around the world. His storytelling led to advances in literature; this caused others to start calling him “Father of the Detective Story”. Mystery did not show in just his poems, but also in his personal...
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...Fantasy and Poetry in Children’s literature The two selections of literature are Cinderella for the fantasy story and a poem by Eloise Greenfield called “Tradition”. Both selections are from different cultural traditions, but portray positive messages to children and adults in today’s society. Every little girl dreams of finding her prince charming. There are more than 1500 different versions of “Cinderella” from cultures all over the world. The story of Cinderella has been in existence since 1865 and published by George Routledge. This fairy tale is one of the oldest and most familiar to young children that inspire them to believe anything is possible. The literary elements in Cinderella include the setting, characters, plot, conflict, climax, and ending. The setting was in a faraway kingdom a long time ago. The characters included a young girl name Cinderella, her stepmother, two stepsisters, the prince, and fairy godmother. The Plot of this fairy tale is a young girl who is being treated unfairly, but dreams of finding her true love. She is being mistreated by her stepmom and sisters and works as a maid in the home. Cinderella begs to go to a ball and is told she could go after all chores are completed. Once she completes the chores and finds a dress, she is maliciously attacked by her stepsisters and destroys her dress. Cinderella was shattered and thought she would never recover from this. The conflict in this story is the continual dislike from the stepmother and...
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...Bath’s Tale’ is a medieval text set in a patriarchal society in which women were treated in an unequal manner. In contrast to the social factors in medieval society, Chaucer’s story is dominated by women, making this a matriarchal story which presents themes of women‘s independence. This idea is accentuated due to the fact that the Wife of Bath narrates the story. The main character of the knight who reflects the personality of promiscuous males in the medieval period who were mostly lustful towards woman and the roles between men and women showed inequality. Conversely, Duffy’s poems are contemporary in contrast to Chaucer’s patriarchal influence in his story, there is more of a sense of equality as she is a modern feminist author which presents the genders in the poems ‘Adultery’ and ‘Valentine’ in a quite ambiguous nature. The reader is unable to understand if the narrative voice is a male or a female. As a result the gender of the narrator in ‘Adultery’ and ‘Valentine is ambiguous. In addition, due to the ambiguity her poems, primarily ‘Valentine’ as she compares love to an onion and does this by using imagery, symbolism and choice of lexis. Both Chaucer and Duffy present ideas about lust and love in their work. However, Chaucer presents the idea of love in a medieval fairy tale which is more idealistic as the story ends on a happy note. By contrast Duffy presents the idea of lust and love in a modern setting and conveys more painful and realistic aspects in the poems. Firstly...
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...The tale of Daedalus and Icarus is one of the most widely known myths in all of Greek mythology. ___ also embodies one of the clearest themes in Edith Hamilton's rendition of mythology. A relatively old poem that is strikingly similar conveys the same type of message. The two works, Edith Hamilton's Mythology and Macklin MacKenzie's "If You Could Fly", both describe pleasures, in their case flying, as something that can often mask reality and judgement. The poem starts off as a fairly happy tale but ends in a strange fashion as the author states, "But in the air, with no one there, the loneliness would rise. There'd be no way to compensate, you say if you could fly"(MacKenzie l. 19-21). This strangely specific description is interesting given that it could be from either Daedalus' or Icarus'...
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...“Anthology of American Literature,” George McMichael and James Leonard included a literary criticism from Edgar Poe in “Twice-Told Tales” written by Hawthorne. In his review, Edgar Allan Poe set the rules of short stories. Also, the authors included Poe’ theory of poetry in “The Poetic Principle" and "The Philosophy of Composition" which contained the unified core and basis of Poe's critical theories and these two essays alone suffice to give one a full understanding of Poe's critical views. Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be America's first significant literary critic or, at least, the first major writer in America to write seriously about criticism, about the theory of composition, and about the principles of creative art. He was also the first to set down consistent set of principles about what he thought was acceptable in art and what should be essentially rejected in art. Poe's major theories can be found in the many reviews he wrote analyzing the writings of other authors; in this genre, his most famous review is entitled "Twice-Told Tales," a review of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories. Among Poe's greatnesses was his ability as an editor to recognize great literature and to dismiss insignificant works. Poe was the first major, or influential, writer to recognize the genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne. In his review of Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales, Poe says that "Mr. Hawthorne is scarcely recognized by the press or by the public . . . yet . . . he evinces extraordinary genius...
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...Descending into Despair with “La Belle Dame sans Merci” In his poem, “La Belle Dame Sans Merci,” John Keats has emphasized the literary elements of structure, speaker, and imagery to create a story reminiscent of courtly love from the medieval era where the knight errant suffers for the love of the beautiful, mysterious and unattainable mistress. In the early nineteenth century, an interest in the ballad of earlier centuries was sparked by the romantic poets of the time, of which John Keats was one, and his poem, “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” became a true example of what became known as a literary ballad. Similar to the popular folk ballad that was sung, a literary ballad sticks to the basics of repeated lines and stanzas “in a refrain, swift action with occasional surprise endings, extraordinary events evoked in direct, simple language, and scant characterization.” (pg. 508) Literary ballads also tend to be more polished in regards to their style and their use of poetic techniques. In addition, they will exhibit a set rhyme scheme and a simple structure of stanzas that allows the poem to flow as if it were that song of years past. Keats’s poem consists of twelve stanzas of four lines, known as quatrains, each with a rhyme scheme of abcb. The poet has also taken care to write each line to a specific length. The first three lines of each stanza consist of eight syllables each, but the final line of the stanza is either four or five syllables long. Since a literary ballad’s...
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...despite supposedly in some sense improve the poem – essentially weaken the poem and the story as a whole. Whilst the removal of the gods would provide Odysseus to act of his own accord, and allow the audience to see how Odysseus can cope without the interruption of the gods. Nevertheless, without immortals in the Odyssey, the poem would ultimately lack a crucially exciting fact of narrative and would look very different as a story of a man trying to achieve his nostos, after the Trojan War. Ultimately, it must be acknowledged that without the immortal gods, the Odyssey would most likely not exist as the Trojan War would not have happened. The Trojan War began due to Paris’ decision to give the golden apple ‘for the most beautiful’ to Aphrodite (instead of Athene or Hera) as she offered him Helen as his wife. At the wedding of Menelaus and Helen, Paris made love to Helen and they left to sail to Troy, thus initiating the Trojan War. It is because of the Trojan War that the Odyssey is taking place. Odysseus only underwent the travel and trials of the Odyssey in order to make his way home from the Trojan War to Ithaca. This essentially means that without the immortal gods, the Odyssey would not even exist, and the story of Odysseus would be very different to the one told by Homer in the Odyssey. Another key way in which the removal of the gods would weaken the poems integrity is that a crucially exciting, entertaining element of the ancient tale would be missing. This is particularly...
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...that faces a quest of chivalry and conquers an evil villain. Medieval literature also branches from knights behaving in a certain code of ethics that involve taking oaths and being loyal to their kings and individuals while in combat. While viewing medieval and ancient literature I perceived a couple interesting aspects that are influential with modern society. Honor and leadership are seen today not only from men, but also women. Also, fidelity and women have been The oldest poem in English language literature Beowulf is one of the most symbolic forms of medieval literature to be created. The poem depicts several emotions and characteristics that are still used today in modern society. While Beowulf is still on a conquest to help the good of his family heritage, he faces a dilemma with leadership and honor. He is constantly proving himself throughout the poem to be seen as a superior dominant figure for his people and at the same time, wants to be respected and seen in a heroic light. Although this poem depicts a glimpse of the past, the vast majority of men in modern day society, want to be seen or at least want to take on this role similar to Beowulf. In today’s society, men will go to great lengths to prove themselves worthy of retaining their masculine identity. Whether it is a physical contact with a bigger individual then them, or an intellectual debate, the modern day man has to prove themselves a worthy...
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...EDGAR ALLAN POE Synopsis Born January 19, 1809, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. American short-story writer, poet, critic, and Editor Edgar Allan Poe's tales of mystery and horror initiated the modern detective story, and the atmosphere in his tales of horror is unrivaled in American fiction. His The Raven (1845) numbers among the best-known poems in national literature. Early Life With his short stories and poems, Edgar Allan Poe captured the imagination and interest of readers around the world. His creative talents led to the beginning of different literary genres, earning him the nickname "Father of the Detective Story" among other distinctions. His life, however, has become a bit of mystery itself. And the lines between fact and fiction have been blurred substantially since his death. The son of actors, Poe never really knew his parents. His father left the family early on, and his mother passed away when he was only three. Separated from his siblings, Poe went to live with John and Frances Allan, a successful tobacco merchant and his wife, in Richmond, Virginia. He and Frances seemed to form a bond, but he never quite meshed with John. Preferring poetry over profits, Poe reportedly wrote poems on the back of some of Allan's business papers. Money was also an issue between Poe and John Allan. When Poe went to the University of Virginia in 1826, he didn't receive enough funds from Allan to cover all his costs. Poe turned to gambling to cover the difference, but ended up in...
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