The Dream Of The Rood Essay

“Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I bought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died;

| “Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence.” Ch. 1, Pg. 14

of God as blacksmith. " seize the fire" , " twist the sinews" , " hammer" ,

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

Secondly, the author uses word choice to show the speakers overall sorrow. Throughout the whole poem there are word scattered everywhere that describe the general emotion of sorrow, some of those word being “restless” (19), “torment”, and “troubled” (4). These words instantly give the connotation of feelings like despair and sadness. The speaker also uses literary elements such as simile to express sorrow, like when she says “These troubles of the heart/ are like unwashed clothes” (27, 28). Everyday people usually do not pay much mind to unwashed clothes, and usually look at it as something unimportant or irrelevant. When the speaker compares her internal troubles to something that holds little importance to everyday life and is also seen as unpleasant, the readers really get a look into the sorrow and sadness that the speaker is truly feeling. The speaker also uses word choice to help show the readers the true intensity of what she is going through.

There was only water and bare, empty land. In the center of this nothingness was a great mountain. This mountain stood tall and proud and it reached all the way into the heavens. At the very top of this mountain lived a pair of every kind of animal. In the center of this heaven grew a tree. This tree was not just any tree, it was the sacred tree of life, and it was not to be harmed in any way.

Discuss how your understanding of change has been developed by your prescribed and related texts.

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.

Early in the poem, Jarman points out the “sermon’s trenchant commentary on the world’s ills” (2-3), illustrating a mutilation of the connectedness of the congregation focusing instead on the very real but nonetheless generic ills of the world. Furthermore, the phrase “hand-wringing” (4) seems to describe the shaking of hands as the congregation members greet each other with the peace of Christ, again listing the routine of the congregation. Although, it appears to be more inclined towards a description of a helpless, passive anxiety that corresponds well with a sermon designed to impose guilt without inspiring action. Jarman goes on to compare the persistent nature of sin even in moments of peace with “motes of dust ride, clinging” (8). In this line, Jarman suggests that the congregation is sinful even after all the doctrinal procedure done to become clean from sin. Even the structure of the octave suggests a conventional and never changing sonnet form with 14 lines, a perfect Italian rhyming scheme, and a fascinating iambic pentameter alone, that inspires nothing more than an

It is a genuine subject this emergency, in essence, of confidence yet the adolescent exaggeration as found in line 11-15's "“Maybe it was the demon-stoked rotisseries of purgatory where we would roast hundreds of years for the smallest of sins” demonstrates the impressibility of a youthful personality being advised how to live. At the point when the poem moves from consideration over the purpose behind leaving the storyteller appears to settle on the last bit of excess that will be tolerated being the point at which he wore his "space-helmet to catechism." From this point it is a fantastical retelling of the kid gliding up through the top of the congregation and getting away from the congregation. The polar way of the subject full grown is communicated wonderfully in the picture of his body being "cold on one side and hot on the other" "in the darkness and brightness of

Gonyea, D. (2014). LBJ Legacy: Vietnam War Often Overshadows Civil Rights Feat. Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/2014/04/09/300836769/civil-rights-act-anniversary-may-polish-lbj-s-image

The ominous figure in the centre of the foreground - Jesus Christ hanging lifeless on the cross, in Luca di Tommè’s ‘The Crucifixion’, primarily catches the eye. The symmetrical arrangement of lamenting figures around the cross, as well as the gilded background, highlight him as the focal point of this artwork.

when this loose behaviour I throw off/ And pay the debt I never promised,/ By so much shall I falsify men’s hopes;/ And, like bright metal on a sullen ground,/ My reformation, glittering o’er my fault,/ Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes/ Than that which hath no foil to set it off./ I’ll so offend to make offence a skill,/ Redeeming time when men think least I will. (1H4, 1.2.199-207)

They are not waiting for an actual light to save them, it is an expression used, especially in Biblical times, referring to salvation. These workers, who slave every day, are simply waiting on someone or something to come save them from this undesirable work. The last symbols in this poem are the meat and the bread. “The meat may represent and be an example of everything [the speaker] could not afford to have but wanted badly and valued highly, and the bread may represent and be an example of everything they could have but did not enjoy or appreciate” ("Overview: "Richard Cory""). These symbols are all further supporters of the overall theme of the poem. Why would this king, Richard Cory, who is generally liked and envied by these people on the pavement, commit suicide? Again, the answer is simple, he was not truly happy.

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.