Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
æfter alliteration alliterative ancient Anglo-Saxon poetry animi antiquity appears bard Beowulf bið Boethius Byrhtnoth Cadmon Cædmon CANTO century character chieftain composition cyning Dær dæs Dæt Danes Danish death dialect Donne ealle earth Edda Editor Eorðan erat Exeter extant fela Folcwald fragment Geata Godes gold Gothic Grendel Gudrun hæfde hath Healfdene heaven Heorot hero Hickes Higelac hine hominum Hroðgar Hrothgar Hrunting Hwæt Icelandic illustrate king language Latin Layamon leod lord mæg metre metrical system monarch narrative Neque Nunc obscure ofer original paraphrase passage perhaps poem poet poetical present printed Quod rendered rime romance Sæt Saxon Saxon metre Saxon poetry Scaldic Sceaf sceal Scyld Scylfings Song soul specimen super syllable terram Teutonic thane thee Thorkelin thou tion translation trochaic trochee tunc verse wæs Wanley warrior weard wið words wudu
Popular passages
Page xxxi - Remove their swelling epithets thick laid As varnish on a harlot's cheek, the rest, Thin sown with aught of profit or delight, Will far be found unworthy to compare With Sion's songs, to all true tastes excelling, Where God is praised aright, and Godlike men, The Holiest of Holies, and his saints; Such are from God inspired, not such from thee; Unless where moral virtue is expressed By light of nature not in all quite lost.
Page 262 - ... quae cum secta duos motum glomeravit in orbes, in semet reditura meat, mentemque profundam circuit, et simili convertit imagine caelum.
Page viii - Influenced by the desire of reducing every thing to some classical standard, — a prejudice not uncommon in the age in which he wrote, — he endeavours, with greater zeal than success, to show that the writers whom he was recommending to the world, observed the legitimate rules of Latin prosody, and measured their feet by syllabic quantity.
Page 182 - Caedmon," says SHARON TURNER, " we are reminded of Milton, — of a ' Paradise Lost ' in rude miniature." Conybeare advances, " The pride, rebellion, and punishments of Satan and his princes have a resemblance to Milton so remarkable, that much of this portion might be almost literally translated by a cento of lines from the great poet."^ A recent Saxonist, in noticing " the creation of Credmon as beautiful," adds, " It is still more interesting from its singular correspondence, even in expression,...
Page 262 - Da, pater, augustam menti conscendere sedem, da fontem lustrare boni, da luce reperta in te conspicuos animi defigere visus. Dissice terrenae nebulas et pondera molis atque tuo splendore mica; tu namque serenum, tu requies tranquilla piis, te cernere finis, principium, vector, dux, semita, terminus idem.
Page lxxv - IN december, when the dayes draw to be short, After november, when the nights wax noysome and long; As I past by a place privily at a port, I saw one sit by himself making a song : His last * talk of trifles, who told with his tongue That few were fast i' th
Page 218 - Heaven's righteous laws to scan, Or trace the courses of the starry host, To these the writer's learned toil to plan, To these the battle's pride and victor's boast; Where in the well-fought field the war-troop pour Full on the wall of shields the arrows flickering shower.
Page lxxiv - Lenten ys come with love to toune, With blosmen ant with briddes roune, That al this blisse bryngeth : Dayes-eyes in this dales; Notes suete of nyhtegales; 5 Uch foul song singeth.
Page xi - Saxon poetry deserves to be quoted ; he thinks it belongs to the trochaic or dactylic species. It is to a metre of this kind, in which emphasis holds the place of quantity, that I would refer the verses of the Anglo-Saxons. They will be found to consist, for the most part, of feet of two or three syllables, each having the emphasis on the first, and analogous therefore to the trochee or dactyl, sometimes perhaps to the spondee of classic metre.
Page 198 - The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.