Mr. Huvane's English Class - Required Reading



Anglo Saxon Poetry Packet:

“The Seafarer,”

“The Wanderer”

“The Wife’s Lament”

Three Assignments and Poem Analysis Questions to be submitted to Dropbox

Due date_____________

READING STRATEGIES:

“TALKING TO THE TEXT”

HOW TO “TALK TO THE TEXT:”

1. Note, in notebook any words you don’t understand or aren’t sure of.

*For the words you may know, but want to check later, write your own definition

2. Write down, in notebook, notes that help you compare, question, summarize, clarify and predict.

COMPARING – Compare to myself, an outside source, the world

I can picture this…

This is like…

This reminds me of…

QUESTION – What don’t I understand? What doesn’t make sense?

A question I have about this is…

I’m confused about/don’t understand…

SUMMARIZE – Briefly put chunks of text in my own words.

So, the big idea here is…

In other words…

CLARIFY – Clear this up; explain it.

I think this means…

I wonder… I believe…

I’ll reread this…

PREDICT – What do I think will happen next? What might this mean for the future?

I think ___________ will happen

next.

I predict that…

Assignment #1: Define the following terms. Include in your definition an example from these poems or from another piece of literature.

• Alliteration • Allusion • Anachronism • Archetype • Caesura • Elegy

• Epic hero • Epithet • Exeter book • Gielp • Hyperbole

• Kenning • Metaphor • Oral Tradition • Scop • Wyrd

How to Write Your Own Anglo-Saxon Poetry

The Anglo-Saxons migrated into England between the fifth and seventh centuries and dominated there until the Normans invaded in 1066. In that span of time, they created a body of literature in Old English, a language that sounds more like German to our modern ears but is the oldest ancestor of contemporary English literature. Most of what we know about Anglo-Saxon poetry comes from the epic poem "Beowulf."

Here's how you can write your own Anglo-Saxon poetry: Although we're more accustomed today to poems that rhyme, Anglo-Saxon poetry was instead organized by alliteration, or the repetition of the initial consonant sound of a word (sounding similar to this self-same sentence). Each line in Anglo-Saxon poetry has four stressed syllables, with a strong pause, or caesura, in the middle of each line, leaving two stresses before the caesura and two stresses after the caesura. The first stressed syllable after the caesura alliterates with the first or the second or both of the stressed syllables before the caesura. Here's an example from "Beowulf," translated into English, but with the Anglo-Saxon meter retained in the translation:

and find friendship      in the Father's embrace : notice the clear space to indicate caesura; further, notice how the caesura and alliteration provide a rhythmic pause that emphasizes “friendship” and “Father’s embrace.”

Also, while we're more used to metaphors and similes as the major figures of speech in our poetry, the Anglo-Saxons used a different figure of speech known as a kenning. A kenning substitutes a noun with two other words that, when compounded together, describe the substituted noun. For instance, “wave-vat” is a kenning for “ocean,” and “battle-torch” is used in place of “sword” (and more specifically, a sword that has been sharpened until it shines like a torch).

Assignment #2: Provide you own Anglo Saxon Poem with at least ten lines. Offer a title, interesting alliterations, at least three kennings, and clear spaces to show caesuras. Typed or written. Please provide a visual you associate with the poem you have created. You can find a visual online; for this online “found visual,” provide at least four sentences explaining why you think the visual appropriate.

Assignment #3: Compose one “Anglo-Saxon” riddle of your own! Provide at least ten lines typed or written. You might find the following website helpful:

The Riddle: Can be told from the 1st-person: “I am…,” as though you are the object in question or can be written from the 3rd-person, about the object.

o The riddle should have a minimum of 10 lines, but could be as long as a half a page or more.

o Be imaginative in your object, and don’t give the answer away too easily!

o Be sure to use lots of vivid descriptive imagery: personification, metaphor, kenning, caesura, etc.

o Follow the conventions of Anglo/Saxon Poetry, specifically lots of alliteration and caesura.

The Seafarer

Questions for Analyzing and Interpreting the Poem

Answer the following questions in complete sentences as thoroughly as possible.

1. What is your first impression of the speaker in this poem? What is his life like? What does

he believe in and hope for?

2. Does he find what he looked for at sea? Explain

3. Lines 58–64 suggest that the poet is beginning to talk about the glories of adventuring at sea,

but then he changes direction. What does he turn his attention to over the next sixteen lines?

4. In line 80, the speaker begins to talk about the present state of the world—what does he

think of it? How do these thoughts contribute to the poem’s elegiac tone?

5. The poem ends with a statement of the poet’s beliefs. What are they?

6. This short lyric is full of striking metaphors—for example, “frozen chains” in line 10.

Select three of these metaphors, and explain what is being compared in each one. What

emotional effect does each metaphor create?

7. What do you think the seafarer is searching for?

8. In line 88, the poem’s speaker says, “All glory is tarnished.” Do you think this idea also applies to today’s heroes and to present-day life? Explain your response.

9. Could the sentiments expressed in this poem be applied to the homeless today? Find passages in the poem to support your answer.

10. The Seafarer is full of good poetic language. For example he uses the metaphor, “My feet

were cast in icy bands” (8-9). Find other examples of the following poetic devices in the

poem: (A) METAPHOR (B) KENNING, and (C) ALLITERATION –

The Wanderer

Questions for Analyzing and Interpreting the Poem

Answer the following questions in complete sentences as thoroughly as possible.

1) A drastic change in the poem occurs between lines 7 and 8. What is this change, and how does it affect the overall poem?

2) What is the central conflict that the wanderer is suffering from throughout the poem? Be specific. Use details from the poem (quotations) to support your answer.

3) What is different about lines 58-65? What causes these lines not to fit in with the remainder of the poem? Explain.

4) Locate the kenning on page 23. Write it below and explain its meaning.

5) What is a Caesura? Give an example of a line containing a Caesura. How does its use throughout the poem contribute to a major idea or theme in the poem?

6) How is the wanderer’s exile similar and/or different to that of the speaker of “The Seafarer”? Explain.

The Wife’s Lament

Questions for Analyzing and Interpreting the Poem

Answer the following questions in complete sentences as thoroughly as possible.

Directions: Read “The Wife’s Lament” on pages 30-31 of your text book. When you finish, answer the questions below to the best of your ability.

1) In lines 6-8, the speaker discusses that her husband “went away from his people over the wave tumult”. Where did her husband go? What is the kenning “wave-tumult” intended to represent?

2) Read lines 11-13 carefully. What is implied that happens to the wife while the husband is away?

3) What does the speaker’s lord (husband) force her to do by the fourth stanza of the poem?

4) Re-read the last stanza of the poem. What does the wife wish on her lord (husband) for his actions? Is she justified in feeling this way? Why or why not?

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