Question

Compare and contrast the lyric poetry of the Anglo-Saxon period to the Renaissance based on the selections you read in the Anglo-Saxon Period: 449–1066 unit and the Renaissance: 1485–1660 unit. Describe what literary devices were commonly used and what themes were most frequently addressed in both periods. Include at least one specific example from each period. Your response should be at least one paragraph long.

Answer 1

In the Anglo-Saxon period, there were a few well-known poets. To be specific, twelve bards were known of that time and one of them is really representative. This is Caedmon. He was a church man and his poems were really chants, mainly about the Greatness of God. Bards, at that time, more than writing, sang chants. The preferred literary figure was alliteration that repeats the beginning of a sentence so it rhymes with another sentence or word.

About 30000 lines of Anglo.Saxon poetry have survived in four manuscripts. The Anglo-Saxon period spans from 410 to 1066 A.D. and the Caedmon manuscript contains The Exeter book ( a poetic antology), Vercelly book (a mix of poetry and prose) and Norwell Codex (a mix of poetry and prose). There were heroic poems, religious poems, personal poems and love poems at that time.

The Renaissance period had two main representants: Francesco Petrarca and Sir Phillip Sydney. They used mainly sonnets. A phrase that depicts this time is: Knight shows loyalty, lover shows passion, scholar shows Knowledge.