ENGL 311 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Rhyme, Mexico City Metro Lines, Italian Poetry
12 Oct 2018
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ENGL 311
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
ENGL 311 2018-09-07
• Four beat line – initial poetics of the English-speaking people
• Germanic tribes invaded the British Isles and brought their language and poetry with
them
• Nora’s iade British Isles ad take oer laguage fro the Aglo-Saxons and French
becomes the official language with English as the language of the oppressed people until
Chaucer
• The four-beat line of older English poetics has a strong association with music until
current
o Connection across centuries
o Roots in a dispossessed people
o More popular forms like psalm keep the four-beat line, while more courtly and
stately forms (ex. Sonnet) move onto the five-stress line
• Anglo-“ao’s hae the poetr of alliteratie eter
• Dispossessed and displaced of the British Isles
o Next years of Norman occupation are vicious
o Become the working-class
o Not the language of power anymore
Caedo’s H
• Alliterative meter
o Repetition of constanance sounds
• Stress is of most importance
o First two stressed syllables typically alliterate the second line
• Poets rarely follow systems absolutely
o Poetics to be a living thing is not a system
o What is the system and how freely is the poet using it?
o Great poets never completely follow the system
• Space between lines is called caesura – long pause in the middle line of poetry
• Vowels can create this structure
o Ex. Line 4
▪ 3 words beginning with vowels – for the Anglo-Saxon poet this is
sufficient to create this pattern
• Epithets for God
o Caedmon gives us several names for God
o Repetition of epithets for God and in the process, repeats what he thinks about
God
• Line 7 rhymes – internal rhyme
o Some rhyming sounds are internal in the line – not at the end
• Heaven as a roof
o Metaphor
▪ Heaven is then a part of a building
• Middle earth
o Metaphor
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
ENGL 311 2018-09-07
▪ Not literal language – becomes figurative and metaphorical
The Seafarer
• Pound is determined to keep God out of his translation
o Only he makes an effort to have alliterative meter
• Line 10 – Chill its hais are; hafig sighs
o 4 beats, alliteration for 3, strong caesura in the middle
• Line 2 – Joure’s jargo, ho I i harsh das
o Alliterating, but does not force a J-word into the second part
• Line 4- Bitter breasts-cares have I abided
o B starts a stressed syllable
o 2 alliterative stress syllables and a third alliterated stress syllable in the second
part of the line with a caesura
o Kenning – compound made up of two words to form a new meaning – Breast-
cares – meaning anxiety
• Turns it back into a simple Pagan poem – comes from a pre-Christian era
o The only goods are the goods of the warrior – read this as coming from a
Christian society – goods are of god and coming from god
• Pound turns references from the Lord to my Lord – feudal lord
o Strips it of Christianity
• Poem persuades us about how harsh life at sea is
o Keeps going back because of the presence of God (which Pound loses)
• Line 6 –
o 6 syllables
o so many unstressed syllables – syllables not getting the beat
• A four beat would most likely be performed with a drum beat
o Warrior-like
o Performance has a musical component
• Why does he keep going back to sea?
o Lines 57-66 Hamer
o Life with God is worth more in the sea than the transitory life on land
o The seafarer recognizes that transitory pleasures are on land whereas gifts from
god are to be struggled for – Pound leaves this out making the poem hard to
understand. Why would someone keep going back to sea if it is so harsh if there
is no reward?
o Also, a metaphor – life at sea is a life at hardship, life at Christianity is a life at
hardship
• 3 times, imagines a comfortable city-dweller
o city-dweller is one without sorrow or suffering, but with ignorance – he knows
othig aout the seafarer’s life
o tendency to imagine others with great power and privilege who do not suffer the
way the working class does, and to look at the court skeptically is found in this
kind of poem – four-beat poem
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Sonnet) move onto the five-stress line: anglo- a(cid:454)o(cid:374)"s ha(cid:448)e the poetr(cid:455) of alliterati(cid:448)e (cid:373)eter, dispossessed and displaced of the british isles, next years of norman occupation are vicious, become the working-class, not the language of power anymore. God: line 7 rhymes internal rhyme, some rhyming sounds are internal in the line not at the end, heaven as a roof, metaphor, heaven is then a part of a building, middle earth, metaphor. 2018-09-07: not literal language becomes figurative and metaphorical. Chaucer was born into a middle-class merchant family and at about age fifteen became a page to the countess of ulster. While serving her husband, lionel (the second son of king edward iii), during the hundred years war, chaucer was captured at the siege of riems and eventually ransomed. In 1365, he married philippa roet, sister-in-law of the powerful nobleman john of. Gaunt, who was the uncle and advisor of king richard ii.
