英国文学术语Terms.docVIP

Epic: long narrative poem, majestic both in form and style, dealing with legendary or historical events if great significance, invading one or more great heroes. Alliteration: usu. the repetition of initial consonants in a sequence of words. Example: landscape-lover, lord of language. (Tennyson) It was once a required element in the poetry of Germanic languages (including Old English and Old Norse) and in Celtic verse (where alliterated sounds could regularly be placed in positions other than the beginning of a word or syllable). Such poetry, in which alliteration rather than rhyme is the chief principle of repetition, is known as alliterative verse. In Old English poetry, it is employed in a line divided into 2 halves with 4 stresses. (source: Baldick, 5). Beowulf is an example. Romance:p10 1 Prevailing form of medieval lit., 2 verse or prose, 3 adventures of knights, 4 devotion to a lady 5 devotion to the church and king, expose vices praise virtues 6 example: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Heroic couplet: It was introduced by Chaucer from France to English. 2 rhymed lines in the iambic pentameter and the second line is usually end-stopped. Also called neoclassic couplet. aa bb cc dd ee ff The Augustan Age: comes from the self-conscious imitation of the original Augustan writers in ancient Rome, Virgil and Horace, by many writers of the first half of the eighteenth century. Specially it was the period between the Restoration ad the death f Pope and Swift. The major writers were Pope, Swift etc. The Renaissance: 1 Generally, it refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries. The Renaissance was slow in reaching England. The reign of Henry VIII (1509—1547) marked the real flourishing of the Renaissance. 2 the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek Culture, It was the revival of painting, sculpture and literature. Oxford Reformers, the religious reformers at Oxford University, together with scholars and humanists introduced the Bible and classics that