ENGLISH LITERATURE

ENGLISH LITERATURE

451 BCE

The Elements Of Literature

Chapter 1

450 BCE

Literary Forms

Prose and Poetry

452

I. In the matter of their form we may observe:
a. Poetry is written in meter, the prose is not metrical.
b. Poetry is often rhymed, whereas prose is not rhymed.
II. With regard to style, the differences are not so easily stated.
a. Poetry is usually written in a more elevated style.
b. Poetry can use tricks of grammar and forms, called poetic licenses.
c. The poetical style is sometimes more old-fashioned.

Prose and Poetry

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III. As regards the subject we can observe.
a. Poetry tries rather to convey a sense of pleasure.
b. Poetry is more personal and passionate in its manner than prose.

Poetical Forms

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There are certain forms of Literature are nearly always written in verse.

Poetical Forms

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1. The Lyric: Its best represents the highest flight of poetry. AUTHOR Shakespeare - Burns - Shelley

Poetical Forms

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1. The Ode: Is a kind of lyric addressed to some person or abstract thing. AUTHOR Wordsworth - Keats – Tennyson

Poetical Forms

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1. The Elegy: Is another kind of lyric of a mournful or meditative cast. AUTHOR Gray - Shelley - Matthew Arnold

Poetical Forms

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1. The Epic: A type of narrative verse that possesses several distinctive features.

Poetical Forms

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1. The Ballad: Another kind of tale in verse, in style it is often simple almost primitive.

Forms Common To Prose and Poetry

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1. The drama is a form of literature intended to be acted on the stage. a. Tragedy, which deals with some serious subject and usually ends unhappily. b. Comedy, which is of a lighter nature and as a rule ends happily.

Forms Common To Prose and Poetry

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Other types of drama, which to some extent cut across the about classification:
(a) Historical plays which deal with some great event in history.
(b) Pastoral plays dealing with country life, as general rule comedy prefers prose, and tragedy poetry.

Forms Common To Prose and Poetry

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1. The Masque is a short form of some special occasion, such a marriage or a festival.

Forms Common To Prose and Poetry

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1. Satire is a form of literature, which may be either in prose or in verse, the style should be clear and vigorous.

Forms Common To Prose and Poetry

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1. Allegory is a tale either in prose or verse which has a double meaning, a short allegory of a strictly religious nature is called a Parable.

Literary Forms

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Prose Forms

Literary Forms

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1. The novel. Novels are a fictitious representation of all phases of human activity past and present. If the plot is very simple, containing no mystery or complication the novel is sometimes called a tale.

Literary Forms

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1. A biography. is the life-story of some person of sufficient importance to deserve a book to himself.

Literary Forms

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1. A history is the literary treatment of some period of time, past or present general or national long or short

Literary Forms

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1. The essay. is a species of literature that is difficult to define, in treatment it is usually brief personal and spontaneous in tone.

Chapter 2

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Style

Style

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A literary style involves such a selection and arrangement of words as will ensure clearness, accuracy, and melody.

Kinds of Style

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Style varies almost infinitely from writer to writer and even within the works of a single writer, it is customary to divide styles, both in poetry and in prose, into three main groups.

Kinds of Style

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1. Ornate Style. To give the reader an idea of what is meant by this term. The use of ornate style is not always to be recommended only a writer who is very sure of his medium should attempt it A literary style involves such a selection and arrangement of words as will ensure clearness, accuracy, and melody.

Kinds of Style

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1. Plain Style. At the other extreme from ornate style, we have the simple variety. In prose, the simple style is the best for narrative and easy exposition.

Kinds of Style

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1. The Middle Style. This is the name given to a wide range of style that stands between the ornate on the one hand and the simple on the other. Words both of an ornate and of a simple nature have been employed; the sentence are of a useful length, being neither too long nor too short and the rhythm is free and unforced.

The History Of Literature

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Chapter 1

The Making Of English Literature

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Old English Literature
The following is a list of the chief dates during the Old English period.

The Making Of English Literature

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Poetry
To obtain a general idea of the nature of Old poetry, let us examine a passage from the Beowulf the most important poem of its kind.

The Making Of English Literature

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Features of Beowulf.
(a) Language. at first glance, the passage appears to be written in a foreign tongue, but a careful examination will show familiar features.

The Making Of English Literature

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Features of Beowulf.
(b) Grammar. to take one slight instance a word like him in the above passage is likely to lead the modern reader astray, Old English grammar possessed a full array of inflexions, most of which have now been lost.

The Making Of English Literature

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Features of Beowulf
(c) Style. style of the poem is not highly inspired, as will be seen from a comparison of the original with the translation.

The Making Of English Literature

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Features of Beowulf
(d) Form. it is impossible to distinguish any regular meter in the poem. Most commonly there are two alliterations in the first half of the line and one in the second half.

The Making Of English Literature

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Poems

The Making Of English Literature

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1. Beowulf. we have given an extract from this important work. It tells the story of a hero called Beowulf who rids the King of the Greats of a horrible monster called Grendel, the conclusion describes the funeral of Beowulf.

The Making Of English Literature

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1. The Cædmon Poems. According to the Latin historian Bede, Cædmon was a herdsman at Whitby while the Abbes Hilda was in office- that is between the year 658 and 680. It is now believed that these poems are not those of Cædmon, but the work of several unknown compilers.

The Making Of English Literature

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1. The Cynewulf Poems. We know net to nothing about Cynewulf except that a mysterious signature of his appears in three poems, the Christ, Juliana and Elene, and the Phænix.

The Making Of English Literature

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1. Other poems that we can only mention are the Battle of Brunanburgh an event which took place in 937, the date of which is not known.