Old English Poetry

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Old English Poetry

• Are You Sure This is English?

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The First Poem in the English Language

• People in the 500s didnt have TV, Internet,
  radio, etc. so their sources of entertainment
  were each other.
• Meadhalls were common. http//www.youtube.com/watc
  h?v56rQlAjndoU
• Christianity was well-established in the British
  Isles at this point a hundred years after
  Constantine, and it influenced their poetry
  heavily.

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Caedmons Hymn (In Old English rep.)
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Translated Caedmons Hymn
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Parallelism Examples

• "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for
  my path. Psalms 119105
• "When you are right you cannot be too radical
  when you are wrong, you cannot be too
  conservative. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• "Immature poets imitate mature poets steal.
  T.S. Eliot
• "It is by logic we prove, but by intuition we
  discover. Leonardo da Vinci

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Figurative Language

• When the text does not mean exactly what the
  words say.
• Examples from Caedmons Hymn
• the might of the architect
• heaven as a roof
• Some types of figurative language common in
  poetry are similes, metaphors, and
  personification.

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Alliteration

• Words begin with the same letters or sounds.
• Examples from Caedmons Hymn
• herigean heofonrices
• meotodes meahte and his modgeþanc
• weorc wuldorfæder, swa he wundra gehwæs
• heofon to hrofe, halig
• middangeard moncynnes
• firum foldan, frea

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Assonance

• When words have the same vowel sound but
  different consonants.
• Examples from Caedmons Hymn
• firum foldan, frea ælmihtig
• ece drihten, or onstealde.
• weorc wuldorfæder, swa he wundra gehwæs
• Nu sculon herigean heofonrices weard
• meotodes meahte and his modgeþanc

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Consonance

• Examples from Caedmons Hymn.
• meotodes meahte and his modgeþanc
• weorc wuldorfæder, swa he wundra gehwæs
• He ærest sceop eorðan bearnum
• heofon to hrofe

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Consonance
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Imagery

• Using language in such a way to appeal to the
  five senses.
• Sight - a full moon in a black sky
• Sound - the chirp of crickets
• Taste - the tang of a cold glass of lemonade
• Touch - a warm breeze
• Smell - freshly mowed grass