A dream vision is a genre of writing that takes place within a dream. Dreams can be inspiration for the dreamer, and encourage him or her to act on what was said in the dream. The Dream of the Rood is a poem that is part of this genre. There are three heros in the poem: Jesus, the cross, and the narrator. Each of these heroes help complete each others’ journeys while accomplishing their own journey. Heroes gain new lessons learned from their experiences and become wiser. The author uses personification, anaphora, and anagnorisis throughout the hero’s journey to convey the learning experience a hero gains to help future heroes.
The tree accepts its faith and becomes a part of Jesus’s journey. Jesus is at the end of His journey while
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The cross can feel Jesus’s support through the painful experience. The cross remembers being “ pierced … with dark nails” (46), “drenched with blood” (48), and being “drenched with sorrow” (59). The poem uses prosopeia, a type of personification that gives human qualities to an object, to show the hardships of the cross. The cross could feel the nails being driven into it. Readers get a better understanding of what the cross endures. These strong words describes pain better than saying a nail was put in a cross. The author also uses anaphora, the repetition of the first word in a sentence. Drenched is repeated to emphasize the horrors the cross experiences. The cross perseveres through the painful …show more content…
The narrator’s call to adventure is the dream itself. He could have woken up from the dream but he stays asleep to find out more information. The cross:
“urge[s] you [narrator], beloved man, that you [narrator] tell men about this vision: reveal with words that it is the tree of glory on which almighty God suffered for mankind’s many sins” (95-99)
As a mentor the cross is helping the narrator by telling its experience. The experience helps shape the narrator's mind-set when choosing whether or not to accept the journey.
The narrator accepts the journey because he believes what he has seen in this vision. He decides to changes in ways and become holier because before the vision he said he was “stained with sins,/ [and] wounded with guilts” (13-14). After the narrator has the vision, he begins to pray to the cross and to God for he truly believes. He has changed and:
“hope[s]
each day for when the Lord’s cross,
That I looked at here on earth
Will fetch me from this transitory life,
And then bring me where there is great
In the passage from the novel Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Viramontes, the story of a girl named Estrella is described. Throughout the text Estrella learns a lesson from a box of tools that she will never forget. The author uses literary elements such as selection of detail, figurative language, and tone to show how Estrella’s character develops. Selection of detail within the text is vital because it allows for the reader to better understand who Estrella is, especially when describing Estrellas school experiences. For example in line 40 it describes the unbearable pain inflicted on Estrella, giving the reader a look into the struggles she faced on a regular basis.
In The Dream of the Rood, the first speaker or dreamer shows you that he chooses Christianity over anything else when he says “I look forward constantly toward that time the Lord’s rood which I beheld before here on this earth shall fetch me away from this fleeting life and bring me then where bliss is eternal to joy in Paradise..” (Lines 135-140). That vision was like a beacon of hope the dreamer, being alone with nothing and no one, having a hint of something to lean or depend on gives them faith. The story the rood or
In The Crossover written by Kwame Alexander, there are many themes that readers can find in the novel. One of the themes is that dream is very important for one to live a better life. This is also the theme in the poem Dreams written by Langston Hughes. Having one’s own dream is very important because the process of achieving the dream is more of value than the result itself.
He goes into depth about hoping for something to happen, anything. He expresses himself of what was going through him excitedly for example the author says, “So I sat there calmly in the hot, crowded church, waiting for Jesus to come to me.” (182) He describes his situation attempting to make some sort of relationship with God. He creates an anxious tone in order to demonstrate just how important having a connection was valuable to him. Why having a connection to God was important at that time is because before the big revival was over they called the kids to convert them. When it was time to bring his spiritual needs, he was told by his aunt “when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to you inside! And Jesus came into your life! …I believed her.” (182) The author may employ pathos through his emotional language. This rhetorical appeal is often used to emphasize his emotional response towards how he feels about being “saved.” The outpouring of his emotions towards getting “saved” was a big concern that he was trying to achieve. He implicated how not only was he expected to be touched by the presence of God, but every other kid his age. This is how the writer was discussing about him being open about the idea of being “saved.”
The Bible has been translated into 451 languages, sold over 6 billion times, and depicted in over 40 movies. The Bible and the crucifixion of the Messiah are prominent aspects in cultures all around the world today. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has been translated, dramatized, televised, adapted, and cartooned. In “The Dream of the Rood,” translated by R.M. Liuzza, the Biblical cross comes to life to tell its own version of Christ’s death and resurrection. The author recreated the Biblical account to appeal to the Anglo-Saxon warrior group to effectively convert them. However, the story from the cross’s perspective matches the crucial material of the Biblical account of the crucifixion without defaming Christ.
The cross, once plain wood, is now “exalted over all forest-tress” (91) and risen to the status of a lord. The Dreamer is seeing for himself the validity of Christ’s claims of rewarding his faithful servants. So the Cross, it seems, is now further gift-giving and reciprocating by telling the Dreamer that he has been given a gift by Christ, who died for his sins. The Dreamer interprets the telling of this story by the Cross as a gift, and so in return for this gift that the Cross has given him, the Dreamer tells the story of his dream to others in order to tell the tale and let others know of this great gift that was given to all of humanity by Christ. Its resplendence in its appearance to the dreamer is testament to the validity of its sacrifice in going against traditional Germanic servitude, which is important to addressing the comingling of cultures in The Dream of the Rood. This is certainly not heroism and faithful retainership as the Anglo-Saxons were used to it, but the Dreamer’s vision of the Cross in all its glory gives credence to Christ as a lord and gift giver.
Presenting Christ as a warrior impregnable to fatigue and weakness, the poet shows that Christ was an ultimate hero. The "The Dream of the Rood's" description of Christ's burial also reflects the unique image of Christ in medieval times.
The image of Jesus nailed to a wooden cross by the palms of his hands and with a crown of thorns wrapped around his head is one that has transcended all time barriers. It has inclusive been replicated into figure form that is utilized in various ways but whose primary function is to serve as a constant reminder of the physical suffering endured by Jesus. In The Dream of the Rood however, the perception of Jesus Christ as not only the son of God and savior of mankind but also as a human with the capacity to feel pain, is subverted when through the perspective of a personified cross he is conveyed as a warrior in the midst of combat. The portrayal of Jesus in this way immediately evokes the image of an ideal stereotypical hero who is strong,
Throughout Christian poems and stories, the story of Christ and His crucifixion occasionally shows up, either as the focus of the story or a prominent part of it. Naturally, the portrayal of this scene always stays with the same basic outline, with Christ dying while on the cross after his trial. Although the basics stay the same, stories occasionally show different portrayals of the death of Jesus. This aforementioned crucifixion scene appears in both The Dream of the Rood and Piers Plowman. However, although these stories portray the same scene, they do so in varying ways.
He is naïve and determined that after this journey he will return unscathed and able to follow his wife to heaven. During his journey he becomes more alike the traveller he meets. This suggest that he
‘The Dream of the Rood’ has been marveled as one of the finest religious poems from the Anglo-Saxon time period. The poem itself shows the contrast between the Pagan religion and Christianity and the overlap of religious symbols between them. It follows the crucifixion of Jesus and the dreamer’s journey to finding faith. The rood is seen as the backbone of the crucifixion and is depicted as being praised more than Christ. Using the literary devices of kenning and alliteration the author highlights the heroic nature of the rood, the dreamer’s gradual progression to optimism and the struggle of the people of the time to remove Pagan traditions in literature.
It was “on the third day of rain” that the Pelayo family found “a very old man, lying face down in the mud…impeded by his enormous wings” (1). By stating in the first line that it had rained for three days, the significance of the rain is exemplified. Being a symbol of rejuvenation and rebirth, the old man can be seen as being reborn on this day. This imagery is further reinforced by the fact that Jesus also was reborn from the dead after three days. Being found in mud also correlates to how Jesus was born among commoners. Many people come to witness the flesh and blood angel. However, the “consolation miracles” performed by the angel were said to show his “certain mental disorder” (4). This again parallels the way God performs strange works. Like Christ, the old man’s apparent disillusion discredited him. All these similarities to Christ give the old man a particular significance.
The poem consists of a mixture of Christian and epic elements and has a very unique style. It represents the crucifixion as a battle and Christ as an epic hero, similar to Beowulf, which is quite different from the texts in the Bible. This contrast can be observed in the description of Jesus’ action during the crucifixion, and in the
In “The Dream of The Rood,” an unknown narrator dreams of a beautiful Rood or cross. The cross was the one used in Christ’s crucifixion, the most important event in Christian belief. The Dreamer described it as, “the most splendid tree” (4). In his dream, the Rood tells its story of Christ’s crucifixion. The Rood described the nails that are driven into its
This short scene leading to the cross opens the mind of the audience that Jesus loves us vastly to take the punishments of sins.