Lesson Overview 

  We have done poems now, both contemporary (poems before Grendel) and Anglo-Saxon ("Deor", Beowulf) - it is time to see how they are using that knowledge and mastery.  In addition, the students are now creating their Illuminated Text project - which gives them a certain incentive for seeing how this stuff works as well as which poem they want to choose for their project.
      During this class - you want to go over (you may have earlier during Beowulf or poems before Grendel) three simple rules for understanding poetry:
      1) Literal before figure - sometimes we never even get to the figurative and that's fine - but you have to know what is happening in the poem before you can understna anything else.
      2) Know the meaning of every word.  Poetry is short-hand - every word counts - make sure you know exactly what those words mean
      3) Know the antecedent of every pronoun.  Surprisingly - this is superhelpful.  Probably has something to do with that shorthand of verse - lot's of pronouns - keep track!
      The class is pretty straight-forward.  We read the poems from their reading (after their quiz) aloud - stopping and going over both what the teacher wants to point out - as well as responding to any questions that the students have.  I start at the front of the class - a student begins reading the poem, and I stop for my questions, comments, as well as those of the students.  After a few lines of reading - I go to the next student to continue the reading. There are not a lot of lesson instructions here - just what I've written on top of my reading notes (30 years worth of notes). 
     After you go over these poems - you give the students some new ones -  "Wulf and Eadwacer" and "The Hermit's Song" (thank you Lisa Danforth!).  It is a wonderful exercise to combine both going over a  poem that a students read (as homework) and to then go over poems in a  "cold reading".  It uses different thinking processes and the one builds on the other.
    I do not spend a lot of time going over the history of "The Exeter Book" - just a question to the class - "What can you tell me about The Exeter Book" -  there is so little time - and whatever we have I want to use for the poems (we almost never have time for the last poem - "The Hermit's Song" - and sometimes I will push that to when we go over (in a few classes) Celtic Poetry.
    "The Wife's Lament" and "The Husband's Message" are NOT really connected - but it is pretty for us to pretend they are - and they work really well with "Wulf and Eadwacer" as well.    When you get to that (Wulf) poem - it is important to be patient and to let the students see what is happening with the two characters in the poem - and why.  I've never had a class not be able to see it on their own - and I've not had a class where the students rush to the bulletin board after class  to claim that poem for their Illuminated Text project.
    Please see my  reading notes for the  questions and comments as we read the poem aloud (see above).  However here are some very important (and cool) things that happen in these poems:

Don't forget to go over the Intro to the Exeter book.  I usually just ask the students what stood out to them - they always bring up that the book was used as a beer coaster and a cutting board.

The Wife's Lament

• ah the translator!  Charles W. Kennedy - one of the Beowulf translators that we read

• Start letting students point out the poetic devices used - Like alliteration (you should have gone over these during Beowulf)

• ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS - What is the story of what's going on? These Anglo-Saxon poems are stories (heartbreaking stories).  What is the story?

• Lines 27-28 ARE KEY!  "Far or near where I fly there follows / The hate of him who was once so dear."  The line deconstructs - and that's important to  point out to the students.  What exactly does it mean?  1) Whereever she goes she feels hatred towards the husband who left   2) Whereever she goes - the hatred for her husband permeates the place.  Only later in the poem do we get a kind of answer.  By knowing that there are two interpretations - it gets you looking (and writing notes).

• Lines 50 on - the wife pictures her husband JUST as miserable as she has been - this is something that every student will be able to identify with.

• If you get a chance - play the Enya song "Exile" - that sure sounds like it was modeled on this (a handout has the lyrics)

The Husband's Message

• ah the tranaslation Part 2 - the other Beowulf translator Burton Raffel!  Kids love connections.

• What a fun poem - and did the students "get it" when they were doing the reading?  This is a perfect chance to point out to the students a "self- check".  The poem begins with a riddle.  Did the students see that riddle?  Did they try to understand it when they were doing their reading?  If not - why?

• Point out the puzzling parts of the poem - the past tense of her vows and her love.  Why does he need to send on this hand carved staff a reminder of these things.

• Ask the students what the signal she is to wait for - to know he is at the shore waiting for is.  Ok - the sound of the bird.  Which bird? Oh - a "cuckoo".  Now ask why?  Did they think about that while reading?  Why not?  Make sure they have the handout with the OED definition of Cuckoo on it.  Ok - have a student read parts.  1) Yes - cuckoo birds are the harbinger of spring in western Europe.  Yes - makes sense - spring, love, new beginnings (you are helping set up The Canterbury Tales too).  Keep reading that definition - oh see what Cuckoo birds do - they push eggs out of other birds' nests and take their place - which leads to the word: cuckold!  Ahhhhh - now that past tense and his reminder makes a lot more sense.

• The last part of the poem lines 35 on - this part of the story should sound familiar to most of the students (whose previous class was American Literature at my school): Man has girl.  Man loses girl.  Man runs away with nothing.  Man acquires great wealth at great cost to get girl back.  ASK the students if that sounds familiar.  I've never not had at least one student in the class shout out: "The Great Gatsby".  - another brick in the wall of showing the students that things do not change in the way they think they do.

• If you have time play the song "Two Princes" by The Spin Doctors - which also is the same story.  See!

Wulf and Eadwacer  - This poem is read cold - they have not seen it or read it before.  Have a student read a stanza - stop and talk about that stanza.  LET THE STUDENTS FIGURE THIS POEM OUT TOGETHER!  Let them ask and answer the questions.  Rule #1 (Literal before figurative) Why is he exiled?  Why is he hated?  Why does she get sick ---- ohhhhh --- RULE #2 - Know the meaning of every word.  What is a whelp?  Oh - a wolf child.  Oh - she is pregnant - with a child of man who belongs to the enemy tribe.  Ahhhh.  The students love it and they love they figured it out and that people haven't really changed - and they all want to do this poem for their Illuminated Text project.  I have included an excellent Illulminated Text created for this project on the poem.

Thoughts on the Lesson 

Though I may have mentioned them before THIS is the big lesson for introducing my THREE RULES FOR UNDERSTANDING POETRY.  I found over 33 years that students mostly either hate or fear poetry.  And that's usually because they've been told you need to be an English teacher with a magic book of symbols to understand it.  You don't - and this lesson begins to show them why that is so.