Cædmon's "Hymn" is a short Old English poem originally composed by Cædmon, a supposedly illiterate cow-herder who was, according to Bede, able to sing in honour of God the Creator, using words that he had never heard before. It was composed between 658 and 680 and is the oldest recorded Old English poem, being composed within living memory of the Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England. It is also one of the oldest surviving samples of Germanic alliterative verse.
The "Hymn" is Cædmon's sole surviving composition. It was designed to be sung from memory and was later preserved in written form by others, surviving today in at least 19 verified manuscript copies. The poem has passed down from a Latin translation by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. It forms a prominent landmark and reference point for the study of Old English prosody, for the early influence which Christianity had on the poems and songs of the Anglo-Saxon people after their conversion.
In "The Dream of the Rood," an unknown poet dreams that he encounters a beautiful tree. It is the "rood," or cross, on which Jesus Christ was crucified. It is gloriously decorated with gold and gems, but the poet can discern ancient wounds. The rood tells the poet how it had been forced to be the instrument of Christ's death, describing how it, too, experienced the nails and spear thrusts along with the Savior. The rood goes on to explain that the cross was once an instrument of torture and death, and is now the dazzling sign of mankind's redemption. It charges the poet to tell of his vision to all men so that they, too, might be redeemed of sin. https://www.thoughtco.com/the-dream-of-the-rood-1788873
“The Wanderer” is an Anglo-Saxon poem about a lonely wanderer hopelessly alleviating his woes in the posthumous period of his fallen lord. Characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon period, the poem portrays themes of fraternity and loyalty, allegiance and the tradition of a warrior’s passing .
Example of an ELEGY - defined as a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.
The Seafarer as interpreted by many scholar as a poem told from the point of view of an old seafarer, who is reminiscing and evaluating his life as he has lived it. The seafarer describes the desolate hardships of life on the wintry sea. He describes the anxious feelings, cold-wetness, and solitude of the sea voyage in contrast to life on land where men are surrounded by kinsmen, free from dangers, and full on food and wine. The climate on land then begins to resemble that of the wintry sea, and the speaker shifts his tone from the dreariness of the winter voyage and begins to describe his yearning for the sea. Time passes through the seasons from winter — “it snowed from the north”— to spring — “groves assume blossoms” — and to summer — “the cuckoo forebodes, or forewarns”. Then the speaker again shifts, this time not in tone, but in subject matter. The sea is no longer explicitly mentioned; instead the speaker preaches about steering a steadfast path to heaven. He asserts that “earthly happiness will not endure", that men must oppose “the devil with brave deeds”, and that earthly wealth cannot travel to the afterlife nor can it benefit the soul after a man's death. The poem ends with a series of gnomic statements about God,eternity,and self-control. The poem then ends with the single word "Amen".
Poetic techniques in The Seafarer - alliteration, caesura, kenning
alliteration: the repeating of similar sounds, the initial consonant usually
kenning: a metaphorical two-word description of something
Sir Gawain and The Green Knight is a medieval romance. This genre of literature features adventuring knights, noble ladies, and often, elements of the supernatural. More importantly, the hero usually undergoes a process of self-discovery in the course of his adventure, which enables him to reincorporate into society (represented by the courts) as a better version of himself. Sir Gawain is a narrative rich in the Arthurian legend and the chivalric code. The code represented a fusion of Christian and military ideals as a basis for gentlemanly conduct. The chief chivalric virtues were piety (love of God), bravery, loyalty, and honor. The most important of these traits was probably loyalty. The chivalrous knight was loyal to God, to his master, and to the mistress of his heart. Besides the battlefield, the tournament was the chief arena in which knights demonstrated the virtues of chivalry. Sometimes Sir Lancelot is considered to be the perfect knight; however, in the early Arthurian tradition that role belonged to Sir Gawain. He was the greatest of the Knights of the Round Table, famous for his physical prowess, courtesy, and integrity. His encounter with the Green Knight forces him to acknowledge his human weakness and his failure to live up to the knightly ideal.
One Day I Wrote Her Name Upon the Strand inEdmund Spenser’s Amoretti is one of the greatest of the Elizabethan sonnet sequences; after Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella (which was the first great sonnet sequence in English), it is perhaps the greatest of all. Sonnet LXXV from Amoretti, beginning ‘One day I wrote her name upon the strand’, is probably the most famous poem in the cycle. addresses one of the key themes of the Elizabethan sonnet sequence: the struggle of the poet to immortalise his beloved, the woman his sonnets are written in praise of. In summary, Spenser tells us that he wrote his beloved’s name on the beach one day, but the waves came in and washed the name away. He wrote his beloved’s name out a second time, but again the tide came in and obliterated it, as if deliberately targeting the poet’s efforts (‘pains’) with its destructive waves.
Poetry: Caedmon’s Hymn; The Dream of the Rood;The Wanderer; The Seafarer; Sir Gawain and The Green Knight; One Day I Wrote Her Name Upon the Strand; Amoretti XV; Death Be Not Proud (Holy Sonnet 10); Hymn to God, my God, in My Sickness; Sonnet XVIII; Sonnet XXIX; Sonnet 30; Sonnet CXVI; Easter Wings; An Hymn On The Nativity Of My Savior; On My First Son; An Essay on Criticism; The Lamb; Holy Thursday; The Tyger; Augeries of Innocence; There is a Pleasure in the Pathless Woods; She Walks in Beauty; To Autumn; Ode on A Grecian Urn; When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be; Daffodils; The World Is Too Much With Us; She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways; The Rime of the Ancient Mariner; Lift not the painted veil which those who live; The Cloud; The Lady of Shalott; The Charge of the Light Brigade; The Pied Piper of Hamelin; If thou must love me… (Sonnet 14); How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43); Dover Beach; When You Are Old; A Prayer for my daughter; Sailing to Byzantium; Do not go gentle into that good night
Plays: Hamlet; A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Books: Robinson Crusoe; The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne; Sense and Sensibility
Selected Readings from: Beowulf; The Canterbury Tales; Le Morte D’Arthur; Tyndale’s New Testament; Utopia; Paradise Lost; Frankenstein; Ivanhoe; Oliver Twist; Mere Christianity