古英语诗歌简介
2009-08-23 13:39阅读：
Three Major Phase of
Ancient English Poetry
1. Ancient English Poetry 5th BC-12th
BC
2. Pre-modern Poetry 12th
BC-15th BC
3. Modern Poetry 15th BC-now
Ancient English Poetry 5th
BC-12th BC
--The Anglo-Saxon
Period
Angles and Saxons were different tribes of Teutons,
who were ancestors of English dwelling in Denmark and in the lands
extending southward along the Northsea
--
The Anglo-Norman
Period
In the year 1066, the Normans headed by
William, Duke of Normandy, defeated the Anglo-Saxons. The Normans
were originally a hardy race of sea rovers. They conquered Northern
France and adopted the French language. Literature in this period falls into two
divisions:
Pagan: oral sagas brought by Anglo-Saxons
Christian: writings developed under
teaching of the monks
-Normans influence on English culture
1. the bringing of Roman
civilization
2. the growth of nationality, i.e. a strong
centralized government
3. the new language and literature
FEATURES
Features of Anglo-Saxon
Period
o
Subject matters are
dominantly monotone
o
Strong musical effect and
rhythms
o
Alliteration
o
Metonymy
Features of Anglo-Norman
Period
Subject matter
o
matter of
France
o
matter of Greece and
Rome
o
matter of Britain tales
having for their heroes Arthur and his knights of
the round table, legendary civil heroes
o
matter of religion,
pilgrimage
o
Alliteration and
rhymes
o
Combination of English and
French
o
Coexistence of grand French
style and plain English style
Major
Works
Ancient English
Poetry
--
Beowulf (The Song of
Beowulf)
1. written in Old English sometime before the tenth
century A.D., describes the adventures of a great Scandinavian
warrior of the sixth century. A rich fabric of fact and fancy,
Beowulf is the oldest surviving epic in British
literature
2. 3182 lines
and two parts with an interpolation between the two.
3. Beowulf defeated Grendal, a
monster half-human, and his mother for the honor of King
Danes.
Prelude of
Beowulf
o
Prelude.
LO, praise of the
prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes,
from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
awing the earls.
--
Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight
1. Series of Arthurian romances, Chief of which are those of
Gawain, Launcelot, Merlin, and the death of
Arthur.
2. 4 cantos / alliteration
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gawain/section1.html
Historical
Prologue of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The siege and assault having
ceased at Troy
as its blazing battlements blackened to ash,
the man who had planned and plotted that treason
had trial enough for the truest traitor!
Then Aeneas the prince and his honored line
plundered provinces and held in their power
nearly all the wealth of the western isles.
--
The
Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer’s masterpiece. A mimic of
Boccasccio’s Decameron, the prologue of which is a
splendid realistic portrayal. He planed about 32 tales but only 24
were actually written.
--Popular Ballads
Anonymous narrative songs that have been
preserved by oral transmission. A common form of ballad stanza is
made up of four iambic lines, with a riming pattern of abab or
abcb.
Robinhood and
Pedlar
There chanced to be a Pedlar
bold,
A Pedlar bold there chanced to be;
He put his pack all on his back,
And so merrily trudged over the lea.
By chance he met two troublesome men,
Two troublesome men they chanced to be,
The one of them was bold Robin Hood,
And the other was little John so free.
O Pedlar, Pedlar, what is in thy pack?
Come speedily and tell to me.
I've several suits of the gay green silks,
And silken bowstrings by two or three.
If you have several suits of the gay green silk,
And silken bowstrings two or three
Then, by my body, cries little John,
One half of your pack shall belong to me.
