February 13th

1. For today, you need to have the following literary terms and definitions in your notes.
2. After you have the definitions in your notes, you will need to find evidence of the following terms: Alliteration, Allusion, Caesura, Kennings.  You will need multiple examples of each device in your notes. You may work in pairs.

This is due for Thursday, February 15th.

Literary Terms: Anglo Saxon Period

Alliteration: The repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants or consonant clusters, in a group of words. An example from Beowulf is found in the line: “And the heathen’s only hope, Hell”

Allusion: A reference to a person, a place, an event, or a literary work that a writer expects the reader to recognize and respond to. An allusion may be drawn from history, geography, literature, or religion.

Caesura: A break or pause in a line of poetry.  In these lines from Beowulf, the caesuras are indicated by double lines: //

Alone shall fight for me, // struggle for life
Against the monster. // God must decide

Epic: A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. May epics were drawn from oral tradition and were transmitted by song and recitation before they were written down. Two of the most famous epics of Western civilization are Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. The great epic of the Middle Ages is the Divine Comedy” by the Italian poet Dante. The two most famous English epics are the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf and John Milton’s Paradise Lost, which employs some of the conventions of the classical epic.

Kenning: In Old English poetry, a kenning is an elaborate phrase that describes persons, things, or events in a metaphorical and indirect way. The Anglo-Saxon poem “The Seafarer” contains kennings, such as “whales’ home” for the sea. Note: kennings are ONLY found in Anglo-Saxon poetry, so Beowulf is the only poem in this course that will contain kennings.