Pupil 1.
 EARLY ENGLISH POETRYn
 MIDDLE ENGLISH POETRYn
n RENAISSANCE POETRY
 SHAKESPEAREn

Teacher 2. That’s right. The samples of Early English Poetry. Caedmon’s poem:

Pupil 3.
Now let me praise the keeper of Heaven's kingdom,
the might of the Creator, and his thought,
the work of the Father of glory, how each of wonders
the Eternal Lord established in the beginning.
He first created for the sons of men
Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator,
then Middle-earth the keeper of mankind,
the Eternal Lord, afterwards made,
the earth for men, the Almighty Lord.
(In the beginning Cadmon sang this poem)

Pupil 4. There is also the first English epic wrtitten in the Xth century,it is called Beowulf. You know,it was screened last year!

Teacher 1. I’ll try to read the first lines of Beowulf in Old English.

(Teacher 1 is reading Beowulf in OE)
Hwaet! We Gar-Dena in gear-dagum,
theod-cyninga, thrym gefrunon,
hu tha aethelingas ellen fremedon!
Oft Scyld Scefing sceathena threatum
Monegum maegthum meodo-setla ofteah;
Egsode eorlas syththan aerest wearth
Feasceaft funden; he thaes frofre gebad,
Weox under wolcnum, weorth-myndum thah,
Oththaet him aeghwylc thara ymb-sittendra
Ofer hron-rade hyran scolde,
Gomban gyldan. Thaet waes god cyning!

P5. And in Modern English it is...

Listen:
You have heard of the Danish Kings
in the old days and how
they were great warriors.
Shield, the son of Sheaf,
took many an enemy's chair,
terrified many a warrior,
after he was found an orphan.
He prospered under the sky
until people everywhere
listened when he spoke.
He was a good king!

Teacher 2. The Middle English poetry and Literature period started with Geoffrey Chaucer. What do you know about him?
(Pupils:Chaucer is the father of English Poetry.He was a courtier, a customs officer, an ambassador, a poet and writer. He wrote Canterbury tales-the frame narrative about the pilgrims.)

Teacher 1. You will listen to the prologue to Canterbury tales.(record,taken from the site www.librivox.org )

The Prologue

Whanne that April with his shoures sote
The droughte of March hath perced to the rote,
And bathed every veine in swiche licour,
Of whiche vertue engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eke with his sote brethe
Enspired hath in every holt and hethe
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foules maken melodic,
That slepen alle night with open eye,
So priketh hem nature in hir cortes;
Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken strange strondes,
To serve halwes couthe in sondry londes;
And specially, from every shires ende
Of Englelond, to Canterbury they wende,
The holy blisful martyr for to seke,
That hem hath hdlpen, whan that they were seke.

Teacher 1 .Very difficult to listen,isn’t it? It is written in Middle English. Who wants to recite it in Russian?
Pupil 6 Recites Prologue in Russian.

ОБЩИЙ ПРОЛОГ

Когда Апрель обильными дождями
Разрыхлил землю, взрытую ростками,
И, мартовскую жажду утоля,
От корня до зеленого стебля
Набухли жилки той весенней силой,
Что в каждой роще почки распустила,
А солнце юное в своем пути
Весь Овна знак успело обойти,
И, ни на миг в ночи не засыпая
Без умолку звенели птичьи стаи,
Так сердце им встревожил зов весны,-
Тогда со всех концов родной страны
Паломников бессчетных вереницы
Мощам заморским снова поклониться
Стремились истово; но многих влек
Фома Бекет, святой, что им помог
В беде иль исцелил недуг старинный,
Сам смерть приняв, как мученик безвинный.

Teacher 2 Middle English Literature is also famous for its ballads. Let’s name the ballad’s characteristics.
But first we’ll listen to the musical ballad performed by our students (Medieval Ballad played by Guitar Trio)
Pupil 7 I name the characteristics of a ballad.
 A ballad tells an story.
 A ballad focuses on actions and dialogue rather thann characteristics and narration.
 A ballad has a simple metrical structuren and sentence structure.
 A ballad is sung to a modal melody.n
 A balladn is of oral tradition, passed down by word of mouth.

Pupil 8 I’ll read the ballad “Three Ravens” ,it is written in Middle English.

The Three Rauens
There were three rauens sat on a tree,
Downe a downe, hay down, hay downe
There were three rauens sat on a tree,
With a downe
There were three rauens sat on a tree,
They were as blacke as they might be,
With a downe derrie, derrie, derrie, downe, downe.

The one of them said to his mate,
"Where shall we our breakefast take?"

"Downe on yonder greene field,
There lies a knight slain under his shield.

"His hounds they lie downe at his feete,
So well they can their master keepe.

"His haukes they flie so eagerly,
There's no fowle dare him come nie."

Down there comes a fallow doe,
As great with young as she might goe.

She lift up his bloudy head,
And kist his wounds that were so red.

She got him up upon her backe,
And carried him to earthen lake.

She buried him before the prime;
She was dead herself ere euen-song time.

God send every gentleman,
Such haukes, such hounds, and such a leman.

Pupil 9 Alexander Poushkin wrote his variant of this ballad.
Ворон к ворону летит,
Ворон ворону кричит:
Ворон,где б нам отобедать?
Как бы нам о том проведать?
Ворон ворону в ответ:
Знаю,будет нам обед;
В чистом поле под ракитой
Богатырь лежит убитый.
Кем убит и отчего,
Знает сокол лишь его,
Да кобылка вороная,
Да хозяйка молодая.
Сокол в рощу улетел,
На кобылку недруг сел,
А хозяйка ждет милого,
Не убитого,живого.
(А.С.Пушкин)

Teacher 1 We are coming up to the Renaissance period. It is famous for its marvelous poetry and the first attempts to use the sonnet form.

Pupil 10 Thomas Wyatt, Madam…

Madam…, by T.Wyatt
Madam,wihouten many words
Once I am sure you will or no…
And if you will,then leave your bourds
And use your wit and show it so,
And with a beck you shall me call;
And if of one that burneth away
You have any pity at all,
Answer him fair with yes or nay.
If it be yes I shall be fain;
If it be nay,friends as before,
You shall another man obtain,
And I mine own and yours no more.

Pupil 11 The translation of this poem:

Cударыня, без лишних фраз
Решите — да иль нет.
Ведь вы умны — так без прикрас
Скажите свой ответ.

Приблизьте, взглядом говоря,
Того, кто наравне
Со всеми вам служил, горя
На медленном огне.

Решите да — я буду рад,
Нет — мы, как встарь, друзья.
Пусть кто-нибудь ваш ловит взгляд;
Пусть кто-нибудь — не я.
(Пер Михаил Визель)

Teacher 2 And now Shakespeare. His sonnet as the brilliant sample of European Literature! Let’s name the sonnets peculiarities:
• Themes:love,beauty,politics,mortality
• Three four-line stanzas+couplet(two lines)
• Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg

Pupil 12 Sonnet 18

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Teacher 1 To crown it all, let us sum it up

 Early English Poetry -simple and naïve poems,n
 Middle English Poetryn –frame narrative Canterbury Tales and folk ballad tradition,
 Renaissance –n first poems of European model-sonnet,
 Shakespeare – Shakespearean Sonnetn as the top of European poetry
Teacher 2 Thanks to everybody.We’ll meet again soon!

(Medieval Music played by Guitar Trio)

The End