INSTRUCTION: Outline the plot and literary elements of the stories, epics, poems,

sonnets and plays in Old English, Medieval English, Renaissance, and Restoration
literatures;

Early Periods in English Literature

1. Anglo-Saxon/ Old English Literature - is derived from the names of two

Germanic tribes that invaded England during the fifth century. Because few people of
the time were literate, most stories were told orally through traveling storytellers called
scops. The reciting of poems often occurred at ceremonial occasions, like those for
military victories.

Literary Elements:

• Rhythm—most A-S poetry contained lines with regular rhythms, usually four strong
beats (also called stresses) to a line.

• Alliteration - the repetition of stressed sounds, particularly consonants from the

beginning of words or syllables.

• Compounding—the combining of two words to make a new word.

• Variation - the restatement of a concept or term using different words.

• Folk Poetry – is a text which have some characteristics marking them as poetry and
belong to the tradition of the common people, as against the dominant ‘polite’ literary
culture of the area.

PLOT:

 Very simple, though interesting.

 Thought provoking to didactic.
 It is full of action and follows specific and simple patterns. The plot starts
right out with fast moving action that grabs the listeners’ interest and
keeps it.
 Conflict are usually resolved with great deeds or acts of human kindness
related to good and bad evil.

LITERARY ELEMENTS:

 Include good and evil characters.

 Usually has a hero or heroine.
 Has Magic.
 Often begins with “Once upon a time”
  Conflicts are resolved through kindness, courage or intelligence.
 Often includes fantastical elements like talking animals, gods, and magic.
These elements make the stories far more engaging than they would
otherwise. They also help those who crafted them tap into their
surroundings in a more impactful way.
 The most familiar involve the setting, character, plot, theme and conflict,
and style. Most settings remove the tale from the real world, taking us to
a time and place where animals talk, witches and wizards roam, and
magic spells are commonplace.

• Beowulf - is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend
consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often
translated works of Old English literature.

PLOT:

 The poem begins with Hrothgar, king of the Danes, who has recently
constructed the great hall of Heorot. Hrothgar and his men celebrate the
new hall, but their festivities are disrupted by Grendel, a monster who
overhears the sounds of joy and grows hostile.

LITERARY ELEMENTS:

The epic, Beowulf, is filled with literary elements such as:

 Imagery,
 Alliteration, and
 Personification, among others. T
These elements help to create a tone that suits the circumstances;
additionally, the elements also enhance the plot and the scale of character
development.

• Caesura and Kennings - The caesura helps lend rhythm to the poem. A kenning is
a figure of speech common to Anglo-Saxon and Norse texts. It is a form of metaphor in
which something is described as if it is something else, using a compound phrase which
would probably have been widely understood.

PLOT:

 In many classical meters, caesura was a requirement of certain lines.

Latin, Greek, and Anglo-Saxon poets were required to place caesurae in
the middle of certain lines. Beowulf, the famous Anglo-Saxon epic poem,
has a caesura in each of its lines.
 LITERARY ELEMENTS:

 A caesura is a pause that occurs within a line of poetry, usually marked by

some form of punctuation such as a period, comma, ellipsis, or dash. A
caesura doesn't have to be placed in the exact middle of a line of poetry.
It can be placed anywhere after the first word and before the last word of
a line.
 The kenning was an interesting literary technique used by ancient Anglo-
Saxon poets for many centuries. I. Kennings were first used as synonyms.

2. Anglo-French/ Medieval English Literature – is a body of writings in the Old

French language as used in medieval England. Anglo-Norman became an acquired
tongue and its use a test of gentility. It was introduced into Wales and Ireland and used
to a limited extent in Scotland. Religious houses caused lives of native saints to be
written, and the nobility had a taste for romances about imaginary English ancestors.
Thus social and political differences between the two countries prevented Anglo-
Norman literature from being a mere provincial imitation of French.

LITERARY ELEMENTS:

Religious and didactic writings

Anglo-Norman was rich in literature of legends of saints, of which Benedeit’s

“Voyage of St. Brendan” was perhaps the oldest purely narrative French poem in the
octosyllabic couplet. Wace led the way in writing a saint’s life in standard form but was
followed by Anglo-Norman writers in the 12th century who wrote numerous
biographies, many connecting religious houses with their patron saints.

Romances

Anglo-Norman literature was well provided with romances. In the 12th century
one Thomas wrote a courtly version of the Tristan story, which survived in scattered
fragments and was used by Gottfried von Strassburg in Tristan und Isolde as well as
being the source of the Old Norse, Italian, and Middle English versions of the story.

Political and historical writings

Fragments of political songs are found in Peter Langtoft’s Chronicle, which begins
as a Brut—a complete chronicle of British history—but became a source for the times of
Edward I.

EXAMPLES:
  Chanson de geste - he chanson de geste (Old French for 'song of heroic
deeds', from Latin gesta 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval
narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French
literature.
 Chivalric romance - is a type of prose and verse narrative that was
popular in the noble courts of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe.
They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a
chivalric knight-errant portrayed.
 Morgana - is a playable character from Persona 5. He is a mysterious
being with ties to Mementos. He doesn't know who he is, and seeks
answers to restore his memories.

3. Metrical Tales and Romances - are non-rhyming prose poems that tell a story,
usually concluding with a happy ending.

• King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table - was a knightly order
established by the legendary King Arthur. According to the legends associated with him,
King Arthur had a circular table made which he seated the knights he valued the most
around.

• Canterbury Tales by G. Chaucer - is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over

17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It
is widely regarded as Chaucer's magnum opus.

PLOT:

 The story tells the story of a group of pilgrims traveling from London to
Canterbury to visit the holy shrine of St. Thomas Becket. This is a story
made of stories: Each of the pilgrims takes a turn as a storyteller, with a
banquet promised to the person who tells the best tale.

LITERARY ELEMENTS:

 The title can divide the title into two parts: 1. The Tales, the first part of
the title hints at the collection of narratives. We can see from the first
lines, the tales were written in verse form, in Middle English. 2.
Canterbury, it is linked to a very popular medieval custom: the pilgrimage.
The most important centres were Jerusalem and Rome of course, but
Canterbury was one of the favourite expeditions nearer home for the
English pilgrims.
 The themes are competition, friendship, virtues, human frailties, Church
corruption, social satire.
  The readers are led through the work by a first person narrator. He
facilitates the readers in understanding who is speaking at a given time.
The narrator not only describes the pilgrims in the General Prologue but
also comments on them.
 The setting is the pilgrims going to Canterbury gather outside of London,
in Southwark. They are supposed to walk to Canterbury. The timespan in
The Canterbury Tales corresponds very little to the actual duration of a
pilgrimage.
 The characters are presented and described in detail. They are not merely
characters of fiction. Beside their outward and visible form, he studies the
human being as such.
 To identify a literary genre, it is necessary to observe the features of the
form and techniques of the work. Epic, comedy, drama, tragedy, novel,
short story, poem, etc. are the most common genres.

4. English Renaissance/Elizabethan Period Literature - The Renaissance Period

(Sixteen-century literature) is also called the Elizabethan Period or the age of
Shakespeare in English Literature. It is a literary phase/age/period named after the
central literary figures or the essential rulers of England.

• Shakespearian Sonnets - is a variation of a sonnet poem popularized, but not

invented, by William Shakespeare. The sonnet is a 14-line poem first translated into
English by Thomas Wyatt in the early 16th century.

PLOT:

 Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets published in his ‘quarto’ in 1609, covering

themes such as the passage of time, mortality, love, beauty, infidelity, and
jealousy. The first 126 of Shakespeare’s sonnets are addressed to a young
man, and the last 28 addressed to a woman – a mysterious ‘dark lady’.

LITERARY ELEMENTS:

 By far the most common literary devices used in Shakespeare's sonnets

are metaphors and similes. Another common literary device is poetic
conceits, but it is Shakespeare's metaphors and similes that have made
them nearly immortal, as he himself suggested.

• Shakespearian Drama - is a play penned by Shakespeare himself, or a play written

in the style of Shakespeare by a different author. Shakespearean tragedy has got its
own specific features, which distinguish it from other kinds of tragedies.
 LITERARY ELEMENTS:

 Shakespeare united the three main streams of literature: verse, poetry,

and drama. To the versification of the English language, he imparted his
eloquence and variety giving the highest expressions with elasticity of
language. In his poetry and drama, Shakespeare saved the language from
being vagueness and Infused actuality and vividness.

• Romeo and Juliet - is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career
about two young Italian star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their
feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime
and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title
characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers.

PLOT:

 Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet tells the tale of a young man and woman,
who fall in love but are destined for tragedy due to their warring families -
the Montagues and the Capulets. With the help of Juliet’s nurse, the
women arrange for the couple to marry the next day, but Romeo’s
attempt to halt a street fight leads to the death of Juliet’s own cousin,
Tybalt, for which Romeo is banished. In a desperate attempt to be
reunited with Romeo, Juliet follows the Friar’s plot and fakes her own
death.

LITERARY ELEMENTS:

 Characterization, Imagery, and setting are three literary elements that are
used in the play by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, with the
theme of family feuds hurt society. Shakespeare uses the literary element
characterization, Friar Lawrence is used by Shakespeare to prove a point.

5. The Restoration and the 18th Century Literature - was a time of

standardization of the English language. During the Elizabethan Age, Shakespeare
created new words and new expressions, and spelling was erratic. During the early 17th
century, the metaphysical poets created elaborate, unusual metaphors.

• Puritan Period - covers the history of religious reform within the Anglican Church,
commonly known as Church of England (Demos, 1970).

CHARACTERISTICS:

Most of the literature written in this time period fell into three categories.

 Poetry
  Sermons
 Historical narratives

Writings was based mostly upon the Bible. The work of this era was chock full of
biblical allusions, and the writing was fairly plain. All writing in this time was factual and
had a specific, strict purpose; there was no genre of fiction.

Elements that were used are:

 Allusions
 Propaganda/fear mongering
 Inversion
 Anaphora
 Apostrophe

MAJOR THEMES/IDEAS:

Puritan literature had many central themes. They include:

 Life itself is God’s ultimate test. If one failed to pass God’s test, he would
be damned forever and sent to hell.
 If one passed God’s test, he would be sent to heaven and live
prosperously, most people, the Puritans believed, were predestined for
hell, according to God’s will. Misfortune is a sign that the people are doing
something wrong; it is a sign from god. Success is a sign that the people
are doing something right; it is a sign from god.
 Importance of self-reflection and self-control/regulation. The Puritans
were very strict. They believed that life was simply about devotion and
interpretation of God and his writings/the Bible, respectively. The point of
life was not to have fun or be happy. Activities like dancing were explicitly
banned.
 God’s holiness/wrath. People are inherent sinners and had to be devoted
to God to attempt to reach salvation. Sinners who did not conform to God
were ruthlessly tortured in hell.

• Neoclassical Period - refers to a period of time in the 20th century, specifically

between 1920 and 1950, or roughly between the first and second World Wars. During
this period, composers sought to revisit earlier musical principles.

• On His Blindness by J. Milton - is an autobiographical sonnet during which Milton

meditates on his loss of sight. For many of his life. Milton had been ready to see
perfectly. But his late-night reading and writing on behalf of the govt of the short-lived
English Republic.

PLOT:

 On His Blindness/When I Consider How My Light Is Spent’ by John Milton

is an exploration of a moral dilemma faced by John Milton, and conveyed
through his speaker, as he was forced to come to terms with his
blindness. Milton’s speaker is faced with the impossibility of continuing his
works.

LITERARY ELEMENTS:

 Basically, “poetry is an expression of the human spirit” (Clugston, 2011).

As a result, the poem “On His Blindness” by John Milton (1655) has been
selected as the choice for this paper. The three elements to be discussed
will include: form, the tone of the poem, and the contents of the poem.