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Medieval Debate Poetry
Medieval debate poetry refers to a genre of poems popular in England and France during the late medieval period (although broadly the same type of debate poems existed in the ancient and medieval Near Eastern literatures, as noted below). Essentially, a debate poem depicts a dialogue between two natural opposites (e.g. sun vs. moon, winter vs. summer).Conlee pg XII Although the particulars can vary considerably, this can function as a general definition of the literary form. The debates are necessarily emotionally charged, highlighting the contrasting values and personalities of the participants, and exposing their essentially opposite natures. On the surface, debate poems typically appear didactic, but under this often lies a genuine dialogue between two equally paired opponents. History and precedents Debate poems were common in Mesopotamian Sumerian-language literature (first half of the 3rd millennium BC) and were part of the tradition of Arsacid and Sassanid Persian liter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babylonian Literature
Akkadian literature is the ancient literature written in the Akkadian language (Assyrian and Babylonian dialects) in Mesopotamia (Assyria and Babylonia) during the period spanning the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age (roughly the 23rd to 6th centuries BC). Drawing on the traditions of Sumerian literature, the Babylonians compiled a substantial textual tradition of mythological narrative, legal texts, scientific works, letters and other literary forms. Literature in Akkadian society Most of what we have from the Babylonians was inscribed in cuneiform with a metal stylus on tablets of clay, called ''laterculae coctiles'' by Pliny the Elder; papyrus seems to have been also employed, but it has perished. There were libraries in most towns and temples; an old Sumerian proverb averred that "he who would excel in the school of the scribes must rise with the dawn." Women as well as men learned to read and write, and in Semitic times, this involved a knowledge of the extinct Sumer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, normally spoken informally rather than written, and seen as of lower status than more codified forms. It may vary from more prestigious speech varieties in different ways, in that the vernacular can be a distinct stylistic register, a regional dialect, a sociolect, or an independent language. Vernacular is a term for a type of speech variety, generally used to refer to a local language or dialect, as distinct from what is seen as a standard language. The vernacular is contrasted with higher-prestige forms of language, such as national, literary, liturgical or scientific idiom, or a ''lingua franca'', used to facilitate communication across a large area. According to another definition, a vernacular is a language that has not develope ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle English Poems
Middle or The Middle may refer to: * Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits. Places * Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man * Middle Bay (other) * Middle Brook (other) * Middle Creek (other) * Middle Island (other) * Middle Lake (other) * Middle Mountain, California * Middle Peninsula, Chesapeake Bay, Virginia * Middle Range, a former name of the Xueshan Range on Taiwan Island * Middle River (other) * Middle Rocks, two rocks at the eastern opening of the Straits of Singapore * Middle Sound, a bay in North Carolina * Middle Township (other) * Middle East Music * "Middle" (song), 2015 * "The Middle" (Jimmy Eat World song), 2001 * "The Middle" (Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey song), 2018 *"Middle", a song by Rocket from the Crypt from their 1995 album ''Scream, Dracula, Scream!'' *"The Middle", a song by Demi Lovato from their debut album ''Don't Forget'' *"The Middle", a song by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kathryn Hume
Kathryn Hume (born 1945) is an academic writer on medieval literature (Old English, Middle English, Old Icelandic), on fantasy, and on contemporary fiction. Hume is Edwin Erle Sparks Emerita Professor of English, Penn State University. She won the IAFA Distinguished Scholarship Award in 1988. Education Hume graduated from Harvard University and University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie .... Works * ''The Owl and the Nightingale: The Poem and its Critics'', 1975 * ''Fantasy and Mimesis: Responses to Reality in Western Literature'', 1984 * ''Pynchon's Mythography: An Approach to Gravity's Rainbow'', 1987 * ''Calvino's Fictions: Cogito and Cosmos'', 1992 * ''American Dream, American Nightmare: Fiction since 1960'', 2000 * ''Surviving your Academic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred The Great
Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfred was young. Three of Alfred's brothers, Æthelbald, Æthelberht and Æthelred, reigned in turn before him. Under Alfred's rule, considerable administrative and military reforms were introduced, prompting lasting change in England. After ascending the throne, Alfred spent several years fighting Viking invasions. He won a decisive victory in the Battle of Edington in 878 and made an agreement with the Vikings, dividing England between Anglo-Saxon territory and the Viking-ruled Danelaw, composed of northern England, the north-east Midlands and East Anglia. Alfred also oversaw the conversion of Viking leader Guthrum to Christianity. He defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest, becoming the dominant ruler ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alliterative Verse
In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal ornamental device to help indicate the underlying metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of alliterative verse are those found in the oldest literature of the Germanic languages, where scholars use the term 'alliterative poetry' rather broadly to indicate a tradition which not only shares alliteration as its primary ornament but also certain metrical characteristics. The Old English epic ''Beowulf'', as well as most other Old English poetry, the Old High German ''Muspilli'', the Old Saxon ''Heliand'', the Old Norse ''Poetic Edda'', and many Middle English poems such as ''Piers Plowman'', ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'', and the '' Alliterative Morte Arthur'' all use alliterative verse. While alliteration can be found in many poetic traditions, it is 'relatively infrequent' as a structured characteristic of poetic form.Frog, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wynnere And Wastoure
Wynnere and Wastoure ("Winner and Waster") is a fragmentary Middle English poem written in alliterative verse around the middle of the 14th century. Manuscript The poem occurs in a single manuscript, British Library Additional MS. 31042, also called the London Thornton Manuscript. This manuscript was compiled in the mid-15th century by Robert Thornton, a member of the provincial landed gentry of Yorkshire, who seems to have made a collection of instructional, religious and other texts for the use of his family. It is not known where Thornton found the text of ''Wynnere and Wastoure'', which has not survived in any other sources, but the dialect of the poem indicates that it is most likely written by someone originating from the north Midlands. The poem can be dated with some confidence due to its prominent reference to William Shareshull, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, who left the post in 1361 and died in 1370.At lines 317-318: "...Scharshull itwiste / That saide I prik ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Clanvowe
Sir John Clanvowe (c. 1341 – 17 October 1391) was a Welsh diplomat, poet and chamber knight to Richard II. He was born to a Marcher family and was possibly of mixed Anglo-Welsh origin, holding lands that would lie in the present-day Radnorshire district of Powys and in Herefordshire. Career Clanvowe was born in Hergest, Herefordshire, and was a descendant of Hywel ap Meurig of Radnorshire. His royal career began in 1373 with service to Edward III, probably through family connections after his father served as a squire to the royal household. Clanvowe then built up relations in the royal court, notably with William Neville, who also became a chamber knight. In Richard II's reign (1377–1399), however, Clanvowe started to gain more political notoriety, gaining royal trust that made him a chamber knight in 1381. The role mainly involved maintaining the peace in his home county of Herefordshire, while using his local following to increase the king's popularity. His role in the roy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parliament Of Fowls
The ''Parlement of Foules'' (modernized: ''Parliament of Fowls''), also called the ''Parlement of Briddes'' (''Parliament of Birds'') or the ''Assemble of Foules'' (''Assembly of Fowls''), is a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343?–1400) made up of approximately 700 lines. The poem, which is in the form of a dream vision in rhyme royal stanza, contains one of the earliest references to the idea that St. Valentine's Day is a special day for lovers. Oruch's survey of the literature finds no association between Valentine and romance prior to Chaucer. He concludes that Chaucer is likely to be "the original mythmaker in this instance." Summary The poem begins with the narrator reading Cicero’s ''Somnium Scipionis'' in the hope of learning some "certeyn thing". When he falls asleep, Scipio Africanus the Elder appears and guides him up through the celestial spheres to a gate promising both a "welle of grace" and a stream that "ledeth to the sorweful were/ Ther as a fissh in prison i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific ''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament. Among Chaucer's many other works are ''The Book of the Duchess'', ''The House of Fame'', ''The Legend of Good Women'', and ''Troilus and Criseyde''. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fyndere of our ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Owl And The Nightingale
''The Owl and the Nightingale'' ( la, Altercatio inter filomenam et bubonem) is a twelfth- or thirteenth-century Middle English poem detailing a debate between an owl and a nightingale as overheard by the poem's narrator. It is the earliest example in Middle English of a literary form known as debate poetry (or verse contest). Verse contests from this time period were usually written in Anglo-Norman or Latin. This poem shows the influence of French linguistic, literary, and rhetorical techniques. After the Norman conquest, French became a predominant language in England, but English was still widespread and recognized as an acceptable language for poetry, if only burlesque debates. Date, authorship and provenance There is no certain information about the poem's author, date of composition or origin. Nicholas of Guildford is mentioned several times in the text as the man best suited to judge which bird presents the strongest argument. His character never actually makes an appe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas and achievements of classical antiquity. It occurred after the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages and was associated with great social change. In addition to the standard periodization, proponents of a "long Renaissance" may put its beginning in the 14th century and its end in the 17th century. The traditional view focuses more on the early modern aspects of the Renaissance and argues that it was a break from the past, but many historians today focus more on its medieval aspects and argue that it was an extension of the Middle Ages. However, the beginnings of the period – the early Renaissance of the 15th century and the Italian Proto-Renaissance from around 1250 or 1300 – overlap considerably with the Late Middle Ages, conventionally da ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
