Part One ①Beowulf: The national heroic epic of the English people. It has over 3,000 lines. It describes the battles between the two monsters and Beowulf, who won the battle finally and dead for the fatal wound. The poem ends with the funeral of the hero. The most striking feature in its poetical form is the use if alliteration. Other features of it are the use of metaphors( 暗喻 ) and of understatements( 含蓄 ). ②Alliteration: In alliterative verse, certain accented(重音 ) words in a line begin with the same consonant sound( 辅音 ). There are generally 4accents in a line, 3 of which show alliteration, as can be seen from the above quotation. ③Romance: The most prevailing( 流行的 ) kind of literature in feudal England was the Romance. It was a long composition, sometimes in verse( 诗篇 ), sometimes in prose( 散文 ), describing the life and adventures of a noble hero, usually a knight, as riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournament( 竞赛 ), or fighting for his lord in battle and the swearing of oaths. ④Epic: An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significantly to a culture or nation. The first epics are known as primacy, or original epics. ⑤Ballad: The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad which is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas(诗节 ), with the second and fourth lines rhymed. The subjects of ballads are various in kind, as the struggle of young lovers against their feudal-minded families, the conflict between love and wealth, the cruelty of jealousy, the criticism of the civil war, and the matters and class struggle. The paramount( ...
