Anglo-Saxon Poetry Themes and Plots
“Beowulf”: “The Burning of Beowulf”
Period: Anglo-Saxon poetry
Narrator:
Setting:
Theme: loyalty- heroism-
Tone: loyalty sadness heroism love
Plot: This poem depicts the funeral of Beowulf. People burnt the King’s body on a huge funeral pyre, they constructed a grave (burial mound). Beowulf was buried with a massive treasure in a barrow, jewelry, rings, in that way they honored him and he was remembered as a great leader and warrior. During the war and on the battlefield it is crucial for every soldier to be loyal to their country and comrades. Loyalty is one of the central themes of this epic poem.
The wanderer:
Narrator: 3rd person
Setting: rowing In the sea
Theme: Exile-faith- loneliness
Tone: Sad- melancholic
Pathetic fallacy (the weather accompanying the character’s mood), Christian elements (father in heaven). Anglo-Saxon elements: kennings, mead hall, where all warriors gathered and feasted and shared treasures. Warriors care for their lord. They want to be recognized by their lord, they stole for their lord and they gave all the treasures to him. Celtic lives in clans, clans were very closed.
Plot: A warrior in exile, he is sailing, his lord died and he is looking for a new lord, he is constantly dreaming of the past.
The wife’s lament: History: The first poem written from the female perspective.
Narrator: 1st person – Setting: cave- forest
Theme: love- sadness-exile-loneliness- lostTone: sad-melancholic-nostalgic- lament
Literary devices common in Anglo-Saxon poetry are pathetic fallacy (the weather accompanies the narrator’s mood). It is an elegy because it transmits lamenting for someone or something. A song or poem of lamentation. There are also Litotes, a litotive is a figure of speech in which a negative statement is used to affirm a positive sentiment.
Plot: There’s a female speaker who expresses her deep sorrow over her husband’s departure. Depending on how one interprets the poem, that departure might refer to his death, or his travels to another country. She could have been a peace beaver. At that time wife was a possession, so maybe she was a gift for stopping a battle between clans. As the poem goes on, the speaker explains how deeply depressed she is by her circumstances. She’s alone, without friends or family, and forced to live in exile in a cave in the forest.
The dream of the rood: early middle ages
Narrator: 1st person the, then there’s a switch on narrator 3rd person Setting: dream in middle-night
Theme: Sorrow- courage-glory-heroism-religion (Paganism/Christianity= crucifixion)- belief- pagan elements (the speaking tree).
Tone: Sadness-hopeless-faith History: Anglo-Saxon poetry I believe there are so many Christian elements due to the colonization and the introduction of a new religion.
Plot: It is about the description of the crucifixion from the point of view of the cross.
It is divided into 3 parts, 1 the dreamer initial reaction to his vision of the cross, 2 It is a monologue of the rood description of the crucifixion 3 the dreamers resolution and salvation moreover, crucifixion is portrayed as a battle, the cross and Christ portrayed as strong warriors.
Robin Hood and Allin a Dale
Ballad written in quatrains
Period: Late-middle ages
Narrator: 3rd person
Setting: Wood- Nottinghamshire
Theme: Love- Justice- Rebellion against the system- unfairness –
Tone: joyful- happy- Lively-
Rhyme: follow the same pattern A-B-C-B
History: Feudalism (he was against the feudal system). The feudal system was based on the idea that every person in the land had a lord to whom he owed loyalty and services. “KING William organised his English kingdom according to the feudal system SO, all land was owned by the king but it was held by others. Lords, “vassals”, and servs in return for services and goods. The king gave large estates to his main nobles The nobles also had to give him part of the produce of the land. There were two basic principles to feudalism: every man had a lord. and every lord had land, The king was connected through this “chain” of people to the lowest man in the country.
PLOT: Robin Hood one day sees a young man, singing and playing in the woods: it is Alan Dale Robin asks Alan for money; he wants to rob him but he explains that he has little money, and that the cause of his sorrow is that his true love is to be married to an elderly knight. So They went to the wedding and, Robin Hood played the role of a judge and he managed to stop the wedding so Allan a dale marries the girl, In a way justice was made finally.
On the one hand, According to the legend Robin Hood lived in Forest in Nottinghamshire as a criminal or “outlaw”, outside feudal society and the protection of the law. He stole from the rich and gave to the poor, and he stood up for the weak against the powerful. His weapon was not the sword of nobles and knights, but the longbow, the weapon of the common man. He was depicted as a criminal, let’s say. On the other hand Robin Hood was described as a man of noble birth, whose lands had been taken by King John.
A midsummer night’s dream: William Shakespeare
Narrator: No narrator
Setting: Athens- Woods
Tone: Comedy-Romantic- Fantastic- Satirical- Joyful-
Theme: Difficulties OF love- Jealousy- Love- Magic- social classes- imagination-magic-
Time: /Renaissance period
Symbols: Theseus Hippolyta (stability and order) Oberon’s love poison (power and instability of love)
History: Queen Elizabeth 1 she had never married. Virgin Elizabeth, She was very powerful
When Oberon says fear vestal he means beautiful virgin it portrays Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth helped Shakespeare a lot, they were close friends because Elizabeth was fond of poetry and arts owned also a theatre company called the queen’s men
PLOT:Lysander and Hermia escape to the woods because they are in love, she is obliged to marry Demetrius but she doesn’t love him. They tell Helena, who is in love with Demetrius, but he hates her and loves Hermia. The lovers run away from Athens to the woods and They are followed by Demetrius, and then by Helena. THEN other characters appear, Oberon, king of the fairies, who lives in the woods, has quarrelled with his queen, Titania, Robin Goodfellow the fairy helps his master play a trick on Titania with Oberon’s love potion which has the power to make people fall in love with the first thing or person she sees. He does the same to Lysander so he puts the potion on the eyes of the sleeping Lysander and when he wakes up he immediately falls in love with Helena and rejects Hermia. The same happens to Demetrius and he falls in love with Helena too. Robin Goodfellow makes both of the boys fall in love with the same girl. Then, They chase one another like crazy through the woods and when the 4 lovers rest, Oberon puts the potion on their eyes again. Finally, they wake up from the enchantment, they are happily reunited with each other, Lysander with Hermia, Demetrius with Helena, and that the end.