PART ONE

2. The Anglo-Norman Period (1066---1485)

Historical Background

Literary Types

1.Medieval Romance

2. Popular Ballads

Representative Poet:

Geoffrey Chaucer

Norman Conquest and its Influence

1. On English Society

2. On English Language

Literary Type 1: Romance

• Content of Romance

• Romance Cycles

The Content of Romance

Knight

A knight is simply a mounted warrior wearing heavy armor,riding a war-horse, and fighting with sword and lance . Chivalry was a code of conduct to which all knights adhered. A knight swore to defend the weak and to uphold virtues like compassion, loyalty, generosity and truthfulness.

•

• He would always defend a lady. • He would speak only the truth. • He would be loyal to his lord. • He would be devoted to the church. • He would be charitable and defend the poor and helpless. • He would be brave. • When on a quest, he would remove his armor and arms only while

sleeping. • He would never avoid dangerous paths out of fear. • He would be on time for any engagement of arms, like a battle or

tournament. • Upon returning to his home or lord's court from an adventure, he

would always tell of his escapades. • If taken prisoner, he would give up his arms and horse to his opponent

and not fight the opponent again without the opponent's consent. • He would fight only one-on-one against an opponent.

Knighthood is conferred.

The Romance Cycles

Marriage of King Arthur and Guinevere

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Literary Type 2:

Popular ballad

Ballad

• A narrative poem written in four-line stanzas, characterized by swift action and narrated in a direct style. Two forms: the folk ballad and the literary ballad .

The Folk Ballad • The anonymous folk ballad (or popular

ballad), was composed to be sung. It was passed along orally from singer to singer, from generation to generation, and from one region to another. During this progression a particular ballad would undergo many changes in both words and tune.

• Primarily based on an older legend or romance, this type of ballad is usually a short, simple song that tells a dramatic story through dialogue and action, briefly alluding to what has gone before and devoting little attention to depth of character, setting, or moral commentary. It uses simple language, an economy of words, dramatic contrasts, and frequently refrain.

Refrain

• A repeated line or group of lines, usually at the end of a stanza. The less technical term is 'chorus'.

The Literary Ballad

• The literary ballad is a narrative poem created by a poet in imitation of the old anonymous folk ballad. Usually the literary ballad is more elaborate and complex; the poet may retain only some of the devices and conventions of the older verse narrative. Literary ballads were quite popular in England during the 19th cent. Literary ballads are meant to be read rather than sung.

Ballad Stanza

The ballad stanza is a quatrain rhyming abcb, and alternating four-stress and three-stress lines.

Quatrain?Rhyme?Stress?

Rhyme 押韵

• The repetition of the same vowel sound in words, including the last stressed vowel and all the speech sounds following that vowel: gay, day, play; wall, fall; bowed, proud; season, treason. It includes end rhyme and internal rhyme.

End Rhyme

• If the rhyme occurs at the ends of lines, it is called end rhyme.

Example 1: In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? ---William Blake

• Example 2:

With rue my heart is laden

For golden friends I had,

For many a rose-lipt maiden

And many a lightfoot lad.

---Housman

Rhyme Scheme 韵式

The pattern of rhymes in a poem is called rhyme scheme, indicated by English letters such as abcb or aabb or abab or abba.

Internal Rhyme 行中韵• Internal rhyme occurs within the verse-line.

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,

Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,

Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing.

---T. Nashe

Discussion Questions

• why was Allin happy one day and then sad the next?

• how did Robin disguise himself so that the Bishop would let him into the Church?

• how did Robin get the "religious authority" to marry Allin and his bride?

A. Identify the ballad characteristics of the poem.

B.  What story elements are introduced in the 1st 3 stanzas?                

(Setting):

_____________________________________

(Situation): _____________________________________

(Conflict): _____________________________________

Discussion Questions

Get Up and Bar the Door

B. What story elements are introduced in the 1st 3 stanzas?                

(Setting):__________________________________________________________

(Situation): __________________________________________________

(Conflict): _________________________________________________________

Summary:  This ballad is a humorous incident on the age-old theme of the battle of the sexes.  A stubborn husband and wife are both unwilling to be the one to get up and bar the door.  To end their bickering, they decide to stop talking: the first who breaks the silence will bar the door.  When intruders arrive, pull a knife, and threaten to rob and harass them, the man protests.  The woman, however, jumps for joy: Her husband has spoken first, so he will have to get up and bar the door.

 

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 -1400)乔叟

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 -1400)乔叟

• LifeMajor WorksThe Canterbury Tales坎特伯雷故事集

• Chaucer’s Contribution to English Literature

The Canterbury Tales

Outline of the Story

The General Prologue

Social Significance of

the Work

Language and Form

Canterbury

• Words or phrases or any expressions that create pictures in the reader’s mind are images. Images can appeal to senses: seeing, hearing, touch, taste, smell and movement.

Image （意象）

Spring---Thomas Nashe

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,

Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring.

Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The palm and May make country houses gay,

Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,

And we hear ay birds tune this merry lay:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,

Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,

In every street these tunes our ears do greet:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

Spring! The sweet Spring!

–

– The non-literal uses of language

such as similes, metaphors,

personifications, apostrophe, allusion

and other figures of speech are also

images.

Fog---Carl Sandburg

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

• Images can create atmosphere/mood and convey theme through verbal pictures.

Image is the soul of the significance of a poem.

• These are the opening lines with which the narrator begins the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales. The imagery in this opening passage is of spring’s renewal and rebirth. April’s sweet showers have penetrated the dry earth of March, hydrating the roots, which in turn coax flowers out of the ground; Zephyrs, the warm, gentle west wind, have breathed life into fields and wood; The sun is shining brightly and genially; and the birds chirp merrily. These fresh and vigorous images combine to provide readers with a picture of the return of spring.

The Knight:

I am of the highest social standing

of the pilgrims. I am the epitome

of chivalry. Chaucer idealizes me.

I am always modest and never

boorish. I am going to Canterbury

to give thanks to God for keeping

me safe during all my exploits.

The Squire: I am the son of the Knightand am quite a lady’s man. Iam twenty years old andvery proud of my appearance.(Some call me a dandy.) Iwill be a candidate forknighthood. I sing lusty

songs,compose melodies, and ride ahorse well.

The Yeoman:

I am the attendant to the

Knight and the Squire. I

look like Robin Hood. I

am also an expert

woodsman and an

excellent shot with a bow

and arrow.

The Nun (Prioress):

I am the first Church figure and the

first woman to be mentioned. My

Christian name is Madame Eglante. I

am a gentle lady – well-educated and

well-mannered. I try to imitate the

ladies at Court. I am very tender

hearted, especially toward animals. I

have three hound dogs whom I treat

very well. I try never to drop food on

My clothes. You can tell from my

description that I secretly long for a

more worldly life.

The Wife of Bath:

Bath is an English resort city. I am somewhat

deaf because my 5th husband hit me (14th c.

wife abuse). I am an excellent seamstress and

weaver. I have been on pilgrimages to

Jerusalem,Rome, etc. I am gap-toothed which

is a sign of luck. You decide if I’m lucky –

I’ve had 5 husbands! I enjoy a good joke. I

give love advice. I’m always first at the alter

to give my offerings. I love to wear bright

crimson stockings and wrap heavy sashes

about my body. I told the story that had the

moral that husbands should obey their wives..

Musical Characteristics-Metrical Rhythm

• Rhythm refers to the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables.In poetry, the rhythm ofLines is described through two terms:

meter and foot.

Meter 节拍，音步The regular pattern of stressed and

unstressed syllables. Usually a stressed

syllable is marked with “ ／” , and an

unstressed syllable is marked with “ ︺” . Names for some common Meters:

Iamb(iambic 抑扬格 ): ︺ ／

• She walks| in beau|ty, like |the night

Of cloud|less climes |and star|ry skies;

---Byron

• Shall I |compare |thee to |a sum|mer’s day?

Thou art |more love|ly and |more tem|perate:

---Shakespeare

trochee(trochaic): ／ ︺

• Tell me |not in |mournful |numbers,

Life is |but an |empty |dream!

For the |soul is |dead that |slumbers,

And things |are not |what they |seem.

---Longfellow

anapest(anapestic): ︺ ︺ ／

• As I came| to the edge |of the woods.

• The Assy|rian came down |like a wolf |on the fold,

And his co|horts were gleam|ing in pur|ple and gold.

dactyl(dactylic): ／ ︺ ︺

• Just for a |handful of |silver he |left us,

Just for a |riband to |stick in his |coat.

Foot 音步• A unit of poetic meter of stressed and unstressed sylla

bles is called a foot. Names for some feet: trimeter: 3 feet tetrameter: 4 feet pentameter: 5 feet hexameter: 6 feet heptameter: 7 feet octameter: 8 feet The number of feet in a line, coupled with the name

of the foot, describes the metrical qualities of that line.

No. of Lines

What It’s Called

What It Is

2 Rhymed couplet 2 lines with identical rhymes

2 Heroic couplet 2 iambic pentameter lines with identical rhymes

3 Triplet or tercet 3 lines—any rhyme scheme or meter

3 Terza rima Rhyme scheme—aba bcb cdc ded……

4 quatrain 4 lines-any rhyme scheme, any length and meter

4 Ballad stanza Rhyme scheme---abcb

6 sestet 6 lines

8 octave 8 line stanza

8 Ottava rima 8 lines—iambic pentameter; rhyme scheme—abab abcc

9 Spenserian stanza

14 sonnet

Rhyme押韵

• The repetition of the same vowel sound in words, including the last stressed vowel and all the speech sounds following that vowel: gay, day, play; wall, fall; bowed, proud; season, treason. It includes end rhyme and internal rhyme.

End Rhyme

• If the rhyme occurs at the ends of lines, it is called end rhyme.

Example 1: In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? ---William Blake

• Example 2:

With rue my heart is laden

For golden friends I had,

For many a rose-lipt maiden

And many a lightfoot lad.

---Housman

Rhyme Scheme 韵式

The pattern of rhymes in a poem is called rhyme scheme, indicated by English letters such as abcb or aabb or abab or abba.

Internal Rhyme 行中韵• Internal rhyme occurs within the verse-line.

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,

Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,

Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing.

---T. Nashe

Other Sound Effects

• Besides the rhyme, there are other sound devices employed in verse, the majors ones of which include alliteration, assonance, consonance and onomatopoeia.

Assonance 元音迭韵 • The repetition of similar vowel sounds.

Old age should burn and rave at close of day

---Dyron Thomas

Thou foster child of silence and slow time.

---John Keats

Consonance 辅音韵• The repetition of similar consonant sounds

in a group of words.

At once a voice arose among

The bleak twigs overhead

---T. Hardy

And all the air a solemn stillness holds.

---Thomas Gray

Onomatopoeia 拟音 , 象声词

• The use of a word whose sound in some degree imitates or suggests its meaning. The names of some birds are onomatopoetic, imitating the cry of the bird named: cuckoo, owl. Some onomatopoetic words are hiss, clang, rustle, drip, whisper, murmur, meow.

Structure

• A long poem usually consists of a number of lines grouped into lines called STANZAS. Names for some common stanzas with different number of lines:

• It is the mood and attitude of the poet or speaker towards his subject. Tone is decided by overall analysis of all the elements involved in the poem(diction, sentence patterns, images, and so on).

It is described in ordinary language, such as “cold”, “melancholy”, “cynical”, “calm”, “confident”, “angry”, “serious”, “ironic” , “solemn” , “objective” , “humorous” , “boastful,” etc.

Chaucer’s Contribution

• Iambic pentameter

• English language

• Forerunner of English Renaissance

• Founder of realistic tradition of English literature